Functions of the Gerund in a Sentence

In a sentence the gerund can play a few roles.

1. Role of a subject: the gerund is placed before a predicate and translated as a noun, e.g.: Obtaining cytokines is a stage process. - Получение цитокининов - это стадийный

процесс.

2. Role of an attribute: the gerund is placed before the word it belongs to, e.g.: the melting point. In this case it is translated as a noun: melting point - температура плавления.

3. Role of an adverb: the gerund can have a preposition and can be translated as an adverbial participle, e.g.: Through having investigated new types of polymers we obtained new materials - Исследовав свойства полимеров, мы получили новые материалы.

4. Role of an object: the gerund is placed before a predicate and can be translated as a noun, e.g.: The turbulent flow of gases produces cooling - Турбулентное течение газов вызывает охлаждение.

5. Also the gerund can play the role of the nominal part of a compound predicate. Such kind of verbs can be:

a) link - verb “to be” which is translated by the words “заключаться”, “являться”, e.g.:This technique is to determine the composition of any substance in an exact way. - Этот метод заключается в точном определении состава любого вещества.

b) Verbs that mean continuation, beginning or interruption of an action: to start, to continue, to go on, to finish, to keep on, e.g.: The temperature went on rising - Температура продолжала увеличиваться.

Also a special attention should be paid to the word combinations after which gerund is used:

cannot help - нельзя (не можем не). E.g.: He couldn’t help crying. - Он не мог не плакать.

It is worth (worthwhile) - стоит. E.g.: It is worth seeing it. - Это стоит увидеть.

No use - нет смысла, бесполезно. E.g.: It is no use considering this method. - Не имеет смысла рассматривать этот метод.