Spot the Difference: Gerund vs Participle Quiz

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Gerund phrases are verbals that always act like nouns.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 phrases act as subject, object of a preposition, and predicate noun, so they are gerund phrases.

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

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

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.