Spot the Difference: Gerund vs Participle Quiz

They look similar, but gerund phrases act as nouns and participle phrases act as adjectives.

Gerund phrases always take a noun job such as subject or object.

Here crying tells what kind of baby, so it works as an adjective, not a noun.

The phrase names an activity and is the subject, so it is a gerund phrase.

Participle phrases modify nouns or pronouns, so they work like adjectives.

A gerund phrase begins with a gerund and the whole phrase acts like a noun.

Gerund phrases are verbals that always act like nouns.

A present participle phrase describes a noun or pronoun, so it works like an adjective.

The phrase tells what the artist was doing, so it describes the noun artist as a participle phrase.

The phrase describes the student, so it is a participle phrase.

The phrase begins with a present participle and describes the noun winner.

The phrase tells what I was doing, so it describes the pronoun I as a participle phrase.

The phrase names an action and is the subject of is, so it is a gerund phrase.

If a regular noun can replace the phrase, it is acting like a noun and is probably a gerund phrase.

In A, C, and E the -ing phrases describe a noun, so they function as participle phrases.

The phrase answers 'for what?' so it is a gerund phrase acting as an object of the preposition.

In A, C, and E the -ing phrases act like nouns, serving as subject, predicate noun, or direct object.

In A, C, and E the phrases act as subject, object of a preposition, and predicate noun, so they are gerund phrases.

The phrase is what helps me focus, so it functions as the subject.

Gerund and participle phrases both use -ing forms, but gerunds act as nouns and participles act as modifiers that the sentence can still work without.