Gerunds

I learn the english grammar of gerunds in this week.

1.When the -ing form behaves like a noun, it is called a gerund.Cycling,reading,looking and doing are gerunds. When you want to describe an action or an activity, you can use a gerund.

George prefers swimming to running.
Playing TV games is fun.
Please stop talking.
The film is about gambling.

Gerunds are uncountable. You cannot make them plural and you cannot use the articles a/an with them. There are many ways of using gerunds in sentences.

Gerunds can be the:

* subject of a sentence.

Reading builds your imagination.
Swimming is fun.
Smoking damages your health.

* object of a verb.

Edmond enjoys singing.
Everyone lifes sleeping.
Let's go shoppong.

* object of a preposition.

I'm good at drawing.
This book is about living in Asia.
Sam isn't interested in dancing.

2. You can use the preposition by + gerund to say how something is done.

In spoken English, When you answer a question, you can use the short form by + gerund. In written English, you usually use a complete sentence. Look at the examples below.

A: How did you become so strong?
B: By lifting weights./I became strong by lifting weights.

A: How did you find this flat?
B: By looking in a newspaper./We found it by looking in a newspaper.

A: How did you learn about computers?
B: By surfing the Net and playing computer games./Ilearnt about computers by surfing the Net and playing computer games.

You can use several gerunds in same sentence.

You can improve your English by studying books, listening to English on the radio and television,reading English books and newpapers and speaking English with your friends and family.

Phrasal verbs

Before i had learn a grammar about "Phrasal verbs" .
The verbs in section A are called phrasal verbs. Most verb have only one main part, but phrasal verbs have at least two. The adverb or preposition in a phrasal verb is called a particle. Phrasal verbs usually follow one of these patterns:
verb+adverb verb+preposition
I wrote down her message. Please hand in your homework.

verb+adverb+preposition
You can't get away with cheating!

The meaning of a phrasal verb is often different from the meanings of the verb and particle by themselves.

Some phrasal verbs are intransitive. They do not need an object.
However, you can use an adverbor a prepositional phrase after these verds.

INRANSITIVE PHRASAL VERBS
Intransitive phrasal verbs cannot be followed by an object. You can use adverbs or prepositional phrases after these verbs. Study the following sentences.

I can't hear you. Please, speak up!
Did you go out last night?
Please hang on for a moment.

SEPARABLE PHRASAL VERBS

Separable phrasal verbs are transitive: thet are followed by an object. You can put the object after the particle or between the verbs and particle.

Henry took off his jacket.
Henry took his jacket off.

If the object is a pronoun, you must separate the phrasal verb.

INSEPARABLE PHRASAL VERBS

Inseparable phrasal verbs can also be transitive. You must always put the object after the particle.

Last night a thief broke into our flat.
Someone broke into it.
The thief made off with some computer files.
He made off with them.