Remember: a verb can become a noun by adding ‘-ing’. For example: to sleep (verb); sleeping (noun). This is called a gerund (gerondif). In English, a gerund can be the subject of the sentence as in, “Sleeping is his favourite activity!” It could also be an object, as in, “He is always sleeping!”.

One easy way to remember the difference is that the subject form is usually at the beginning of the sentence, before the verb. “Sleeping is his favourite activity!”

The object usually follows the main verb and answers the question “what?” “He is always (what?) sleeping.”

Click and drag each of the sentences to show if the gerund is used as a subject or as an object.