Grammar help : Gerund or Present Participle? What’s the difference between a gerund or a word that ends in –ing? Here’s an easy was to distinguish one from the other. A gerund is a verb + ing that acts like a noun. Swimming was my favorite sport as a child. (Swimming, in this sentence, is a gerund). More examples: I still like swimming now that I’m an adult. Because he was overweight, he took swimming lessons. HOWEVER you form a Present Participle by adding –ing to the end of a verb. So a gerund and present participle can look the same. It’s a Present Participle if it has one of two things: 1) Auxiliary verb & verb+ing (Ex: Is seeing, was flying) 2) It’s used as an adjective (Ex: The crying man hurried out the door) You can also make sure it’s an adjective by inserting an adverb in front of the adjective. If it is an adjective, then adding an adverb won’t dramatically change the sentence’s meaning. Ex: The loudly crying man hurried to the door. The meaning isn’t that much different, so we know it’s an adjective. But look at the following sentence: I’ve ordered the steak and accompanying salad. Is accompanying a Gerund or a Present Participle? Let’s apply the test: 1) Is there an auxiliary verb? No, so it’s probably a gerund. But let’s make sure. 2) Is there an adjective? No, accompanying doesn’t tell us anything about the noun (salad), so it’s definitely a gerund.