Permission



Level

Pre-intermediate





Students already know

Present tenses and a wide range of vocabulary





The grammar

There are a handful of words in the English language that look like verbs. However, they are not. They are nouns. Look at the following sentences

  • Smoking kills people.

  • Swimming is good for you.

  • I love running on the beach.

  • I prefer eating at home.

It is easy to confuse the highlighted words in these sentences with the –ing form of verbs (sometimes referred to as the present participle), because they look like verbs. However, if you look closely at where these words are in the sentence, you will see that they operate as nouns. In the first two sentences…

  • Smoking kills people.

  • Swimming is good for you.

…“smoking” and “swimming” operate as the subject of the sentence. They appear before the main verbs “kills” and “is”.



In the second two sentences…

  • I love running on the beach.

  • I prefer eating at home.

…“running” and “eating” operate as the object of the sentence. They appear after the main verbs “love” and “prefer”. These types of nouns are called gerunds. Gerunds often follow prepositions:

  • The water in the Dong Nai River is too dirty for swimming in.

  • Boris felt wonderful after visiting the beach.

  • I decided to raise money by selling my car.

Sometimes gerunds can be replaced by the infinitive (to + verb) form. Look at the following sentences:

  • I love to swim in the sea.

  • We stopped to rest after two hours of hard work.

  • I like to play squash every week.

Lead-in


Ask your students what they like doing? Ask them what they don’t enjoy doing? Concentrate on the verbs 'like' and 'enjoy':

REMEMBER:

Concept Questions!

STT!

Classroom Management!

Infinitive forms:

Controlled Practice

Please choose an appropriate gerund for the sentences below. You MUST use the main verbs suggested at the end of each sentence. Be careful to use the correct form of the tense.

  1. I __________________________________ in the sea. (like)

  2. I __________________________________ out. (love)

  3. I __________________________________ people suffer. (hate)

  4. I __________________________________ my work by the end of the day. (intend)

  5. I __________________________________ ill after eating so much rich food. (start)

  6. I can't ______________________________ my brother climb cliffs without ropes. (bear)

  7. I __________________________________ in Vietnam in June 2008. (begin)

  8. I __________________________________ films at the cinema. (enjoy)

  9. I must ______________________________ cigarettes. (stop)

(Remember that you can always make your own sentences)




Free practice

Get the students to make two lists: Things that are good for you and things that are bad for you.

Don’t forget to do feedback with the class.