Learn how to use gerund clauses
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Kellie: Enjoying the British Countryside. |
| John: Hi everyone, I’m John. In this lesson, you’ll learn about gerund clauses. |
| Kellie: The conversation takes place in the Lake District, and is between Lucy and Jessica. |
| John: They’re employer and employee but on friendly terms, so they are speaking informally. |
| Kellie: Let’s listen to the conversation! |
| DIALOGUE |
| Lucy: Ah… I’m knackered. |
| Jessica: C’mon, it’s just a little bit further and then you can relax. The view will be worth the effort, I promise. Lucy I’m getting old and I dislike exercising. In fact, I think I’m allergic to it. |
| Jessica: Oh, stop complaining. You were so eager to come on this work trip when it was first announced and were the first person to sign up. When we were considering planning the trip, you were the most enthusiastic! |
| Lucy: I thought there would be more pubs and less mountain climbing. I thought of good food, good lager and nice cosy cottages, not back breaking physical exercise. I imagined bonding over games of cards in the hotel bar, not taking part in a scavenger hunt across miles of countryside. |
| Jessica: This isn’t a mountain! It’s barely even a hill. When we get back to the office, I’m making you join the office gym. Fit bodies are fit minds! |
| Lucy: Ugh, more torture disguised as being healthy. I’ll be very thankful when this obsession with being healthy and fit disappears and is replaced by an obsession with sitting on the sofa with a lager in one hand and the TV remote in the other. |
| Jessica: You’ll thank me for it, in the end. Now come on, this hill isn’t going to get any smaller. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Kellie: The dialogue in this lesson took place on location! |
| John: Yes, in the beautiful Lake District. |
| Kellie: That’s a big national park in the North of England, |
| isn’t it? |
| John: Yes. It has the most beautiful views – it’s just never ending forests, lakes and even a few mountains.They’re not very big mountains by the standards ofmost other countries, but they’re the largest in England. |
| Kellie: It’s a very popular tourist destination, isn’t it? |
| John: Yeah, it is. People often go there for holidays or just weekends away. It can be either a very relaxing holiday or a very active one, depending on what you like. |
| Kellie: I like a relaxing holiday so I think I’d do some of the easier walks and just take in the views. |
| John: I’m more active so I’d go hiking and maybe go boating on some of the lakes. It’s also a popular destination for activity holidays such as the one Jessica took Lucy and the rest of the office on. |
| Kellie: Yeah, from the sound of the dialogue, I don’t think Lucy will be getting many chances to relax. It’s a very famous region in Britain isn’t it? |
| John: It is. The scenery has also inspired a lot of literature and poetry over the years. |
| Kellie: Like what? |
| John: Famous authors and poets such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge and Beatrix Potter have been influenced by it. |
| Kellie: Interesting. Let’s move onto the vocab now. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we shall see is: |
| Kellie: knackered [natural native speed] |
| John: slang term meaning exhausted |
| Kellie: knackered [slowly - broken down by syllable] knackered [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: worth the effort [natural native speed] |
| John: something that is hard to do or takes a lot of time and effort, but the rewards are worth it |
| Kellie: worth the effort [slowly - broken down by syllable] worth the effort [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: allergic [natural native speed] |
| John: to have a bad physical reaction to a food or substance, to have an allergy |
| Kellie: allergic [slowly - broken down by syllable] allergic [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: to complain [natural native speed] John to be unhappy about something and to voice that opinion |
| John: to complain [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: to complain [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: to make (someone) [natural native speed] |
| John: to force someone to do something, usually against their will |
| Kellie: to make (someone) [slowly - broken down by syllable] to make (someone) [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: scavenger hunt [natural native speed] |
| John: a game where players must find all of the items on a list |
| Kellie: scavenger hunt [slowly - broken down by syllable] scavenger hunt [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: torture [natural native speed] |
| John: to cause pain to someone else, often as a punishment or as a way of forcing them to do something |
| Kellie: torture [slowly - broken down by syllable] torture [natural native speed] |
| John: Next |
| Kellie: lager [natural native speed] |
| John: a type of beer that is very popular in Britain |
| Kellie: lager [slowly - broken down by syllable] lager [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Kellie: Let’s begin with the phrase “worth the effort”. |
| John: Imagine that you’ve worked very hard on a project. It’s taken weeks to do, you’ve had sleepless nights and missed a lot of social events because of it. But, when it’s finished, you win a great prize. You could say that the prize justified all of the hard work you did, or that it was worth the effort. |
| Kellie: It’s used for any circumstance where the end result justifies the work required to get it. |
| John: Yes. It doesn’t have to be as extreme as the example I gave. In the dialogue, it’s used to mean that the view from the top of the hill justifies the climb. |
| Kellie: Next is “to make someone” do something. |
| John: This means to get someone to do something that they probably don’t want to. Lucy is unfit because she doesn’t like to exercise and doesn’t go to the gym. So, Jessica says she will make Lucy go to the gym so that she can get fit. |
| Kellie: Okay. Finally we have “torture”. |
| John: This describes something that causes you pain and/or discomfort. Historically it meant proper torture, the kind of thing that people would do as a punishment or to extract information from you. |
| Kellie: Actual painful and physically damaging things, right? |
| John: Yes. But in casual conversation it just refers to anything that causes a little pain. If my shoes were pinching my toes I could say that wearing them is like torture. For Lucy, going to the gym is torture. |
| Kellie: I see. Now let’s move onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Kellie: In this lesson, you’ll learn gerund clauses. |
| John: Let’s begin by recapping gerunds. These are verbs in their “-ing” form, such as “walking” or “running”, that act as nouns. In the sentence “I am walking”, “walking” is not a gerund as it is acting as a verb. In the sentence “I like walking” “walking” is a gerund, as it is acting as a noun and is the object of “like” |
| Kellie: Okay. Thanks for the recap. So what is a gerund clause? |
| John: It’s simply a sentence clause that includes a gerund. There are some verbs that must always be followed by another verb in its gerund form, not the infinitive form. |
| Kellie: The infinitive form is things such as “to walk” or “to run”. |
| John: Yes. If I were to use the verb “appreciate”, for example, and wanted to follow it with a verb, that verb must be in the gerund form. I couldn’t say “I appreciate to walk is difficult for you” as that is grammatically incorrect. The correct version is “I appreciate walking is difficult for you” |
| Kellie: Let’s hear another example. |
| John: Another verb that needs to be followed by a gerund is “suggest”. “I suggest to leave now is a good idea” is incorrect. “I suggest leaving now is a good idea” is correct. |
| Kellie: Okay. How about some examples from this lesson? |
| John: Lucy says “I’m getting old and I dislike exercising”.“Dislike” is one of those verbs that needs to be followed by a verb in its gerund form and the gerund of “exercise” is “exercising”. |
| Kellie: Any more? |
| John: Of course! Here’s one from Jessica – “when we were considering planning the trip”. Again, “consider” needs to be followed by a gerund, and in this case it’s “planning”. |
| Kellie: Can you tell us some more of these verbs that need to be followed by a gerund? |
| John: There’s too many to list in this lesson, but others include “defer”, so “let’s defer reporting on this tomorrow” and “admit” – “she admitted stealing the money”. |
| Kellie: There’s a slight exception to some of these verbs though, isn’t there? |
| John: Yeah. There are a few verbs that are followed by gerunds that can also be followed by infinitive verbs too. The most common example of this is “like”. I can say that “I like eating rice”. |
| Kellie: But “I like to eat rice” is also correct. |
| John: Yes it is, and it carries the same meaning. “I like walking” and “I like to walk” mean the |
| same too. |
Outro |
| Kellie: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Make sure you check the lesson notes, listeners. |
| John: See you next time! |
| Kellie: Goodbye! |
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