Using Gerunds

Gerunds After a Preposition

A preposition explains a relationship with space or time and modifies the words that come after it. Prepositions include "to," "in," "at," "on," "since," "up," "down," "under," and many others. In order to use a verb properly after a preposition, it must be used as a gerund. (Unless using the preposition "but." Sorry, English is tricky.)

In these examples, the preposition is in italics and the gerund is in bold.

Study hard before taking your exams.

She delivered the joke without laughing.

After riding the bus to work, I stopped for coffee.  

Gerunds can also be used after a noun plus a preposition.

TV shows about cooking are becoming more popular.

And after an adjective plus a preposition.

I’m tired of waking up at 5 a.m. every day.

She’s sad about having to cancel her show.

Gerunds in the Present Simple Tense

The present simple tense is used in English to talk about things that are true at the moment. For example, gerunds could be used to discuss things that someone likes or dislikes.

She doesn’t like driving.

They love hiking!

Gerunds could also be used to talk about things you remember.

I remember watching that show when I was a kid.

Do you recall using a rotary phone?

Gerunds can be used to talk about things being attempted in the present.

I’m trying to learn how to skateboard.

She’s trying to knit a scarf.

It’s common to use gerunds when discussing feelings of remorse or regret.

He regrets not studying abroad while in college.

They regret wearing flip-flops today — it was so cold!

Gerunds as the Subject in a Sentence

When using a gerund as the subject in a sentence, you’ll spot it at the beginning.

Having breakfast in the morning is an important part of a healthy lifestyle.

Staying up too late can cause you to be sleepy the next day.

Traveling can expose you to different ideas and experiences.

 

 

16 Substitutes for “Because” or “Because Of”

 

Many words or phrases can be used to set up an explanation. The most common is because (or “because of”), but others have their uses. Here are alternatives and a discussion of their uses and their merits.

1. As: As is a direct synonym for because (for example, “He opted not to go see the movie, as it had gotten poor reviews”), but it’s inferior.

2. As a result of: This phrase is a substitute for “because of,” not because, as in “As a result of his intervention, the case was reopened and they were ultimately exonerated.”

3. As long as: This informal equivalent of because is used to express the thought that given that one thing is occurring or will occur or is true, another is possible, in such statements as “As long as you’re going, could you pick some things up for me?”

4. Being as (or being as how or being that): This phrase has the same sense -- and the same formality -- as “as long as.”

5. Considering that: This phrase is essentially identical in meaning to “as long as” and “being as” and its variants.

6. Due to: Like “as a result of,” “due to” is a preposition, rather than a conjunction like because, and is used in place not of because alone but instead of “because of.” It applies specifically to an explanation of why something occurred or will or will not occur, as in “Due to the large number of applications, we cannot respond individually to each applicant.”

7. For: This substitute for because is reserved for poetic usage, as in “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

8. Inasmuch as: This phrase is a very formal equivalent of because, as in “Inasmuch as his account has been discredited, I wouldn’t believe anything else he says.”

9. In view of the fact that: This phrase is identical in sense to “inasmuch as.”

10. Now that: This phrase informally connotes cause and effect, as in “Now that you’re here, we can proceed.”

11. Out of: This phrase applies to explanations of emotion or feeling -- for example, “She asked out of compassion” or “Out of spite, I refrained from passing the message along.”

12. Owing to: This phrase is equivalent to “due to”; the two choices are more formal than “because of.”

13. Seeing that: This phrase is identical to “considering that.”

14. Since: This alternative to because is informal and is considered inferior because since primarily refers to elapsed time and the usage might be confused, as in “Since it had rained, we didn’t need to water the garden”; the reader might not realize until reading the second half of the sentence that the sense is causal rather than temporal.

15. Thanks to: This equivalent of “because of,” despite the wording, can apply to either a positive or a negative outcome; “Thanks to your meddling, we’re receiving much unwanted attention” demonstrates the latter sense.

16. Through: Through is a preposition; it takes the place of “because of,” as in “Through the efforts of these charities, the city’s homeless services have been reinstated.”

 

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Prepositional idioms

Prepositional idioms are tricky in any language. Here are some tips for using in and on with expressions of time.

For months, years and long periods like centuries, use in.
For days and dates, use on.
For precise times use at.
 
Meet me at 8 p.m.
The children played at recess.

Some common expressions vary the pattern:
in the morning, but on Monday morning
in the mornings, but on Wednesday mornings
in the afternoon but on Sunday afternoon

NOTE: Although we say in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening, we say at night. Ex. Milk is delivered in the morning. The stars come out at night. BUT We heard a noise in the night.

Some time expressions do not require a preposition:
I went to Sicily last May.
He’s giving a speech next Friday.
My children visit every Thanksgiving.
What are you doing this afternoon?

Talking about the weekend admits of variation:
Do you work weekends?
Do you work on the weekend? (American usage)
Do you work at the weekend? (British usage)

BBC Learning English on, in and at with time expressions.

From: Daily Writing Tips
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Parallel Structure with Prepositions

Writers often mistakenly withhold repetition of prepositions with corresponding sentence elements in the erroneous belief that those elements can share a single preposition. In each of the following sentences, a repeated preposition is missing, and a discussion after each example explains the problem and a revision resolves it.

1. These developments are significant as the cost and influence of regulation on business models remains high in many industries.

This sentence’s construction implies that cost can share the preposition of with influence, but it requires its own, because cost is parallel not to influence but to “influence of regulation on”: “These developments are significant as the cost of, and influence of regulation on, business models remains high in many industries.”

2. Such dysfunction can arise from incentives that do not encourage resiliency and management being out of touch with the customer.

Similar to the problem in the previous sentence, from should be repeated before management so that the reader is not led to believe that management corresponds to resiliency rather than to incentives: “Such dysfunction can arise from incentives that do not encourage resiliency and from management being out of touch with the customer.”

3. They are designing preventive and detective control activities that are effective in the new environment, both from a risk-management and operational-scalability perspective.

For the phrasal adjectives “risk management” and “operational scalability” to be fully parallel, legitimately sharing the noun perspective, the second phrase must, like the first phrase, be preceded by an article: “They are designing preventive and detective control activities that are effective in the new environment, both from a risk-management and an operational-scalability perspective.” (Better yet, do so and transpose both and from and repeat perspective after each phrasal adjective: “They are designing preventive and detective control activities that are effective in the new environment, from both a risk-management perspective and an operational-scalability perspective.”)