In the phrase "The winning contestant," the gerund "winning" functions as a modifier that describes the noun "contestant." It specifies which contestant is being referred to—specifically, the one who has won. As a result, the phrase collectively serves as a noun phrase that identifies a particular contestant based on their achievement.
direct object
direct object
direct object
"The winning contestant" would be the subject phrase, with the gerund, "winning" functioning as the adjective to describe the contestant. "Diving for hours every day" would be a prepositional phrase, with the gerund, "diving" acting as the object of the prepositional phrase. "Diving" in this case would be the object because it receives the action of the preposition. It's also important to note that this phrase would be a sentence fragment. Although gerunds are often present in verb phrases, they usually need a helping verb with them to act as a verb.
The first part of the sentence, "winning the race", is a gerund phrase, and "winning" is the gerund. "Winning the race demanded speed and endurance" is an entire sentence, because it contains a subject (the gerund phrase) and a verb (demanded).
a noun
The gerund 'swimming' is the DIRECT OBJECT of the sentence.
The gerund 'swimming' is the DIRECT OBJECT of the sentence.
To better understand the role of the gerund phrase in a sentence, could you please provide the sentence you're referring to?
In that sentence, "crying" functions as a noun.
The gerund, laughing, is the subject of the sentence.It's the subject of the sentence.
Yes, "wondering" can function as a gerund, which is a verb form that functions as a noun in a sentence. For example, in the sentence "I enjoy wondering about the mysteries of the universe," "wondering" is a gerund.