动名词
动名词跟现在分词看起来完全一样，但如果去理解两者之间的差别，会很有帮助。动名词虽然看起来像动词，但作用上跟名词是一样的。动名词的一些用法都会在本页上说明，您也可以参考另一页：接动名词的动词。
用作主词的动名词
例句
- Eating people is wrong.
- Hunting tigers is dangerous.
- Flying makes me nervous.
- Brushing your teeth is important.
- Smoking causes lung cancer.
动名词用作 Be 动词的补语
举例
- One of his duties is attending meetings.
- The hardest thing about learning English is understanding the gerund.
- One of life's pleasures is having breakfast in bed.
动名词接在介词后
当动词接在介词后，就必须用动名词。对于某些以介词结尾的片语也是如此，例如 in spite of 和 there's no point in 之类的片语。
举例
- Can you sneeze without opening your mouth?
- She is good at painting.
- She avoided him by walking on the opposite side of the road.
- We arrived in Madrid after driving all night.
- My father decided against postponing his trip to Hungary.
- There's no point in waiting.
- In spite of missing the train, we arrived on time.
动名词用在动词片语后
动词片语是由一个动词 + 介词或副词组成。
举例
- When will you give up smoking?
- She always puts off going to the dentist.
- He kept on asking for money.
- Jim ended up buying a new TV after his old one broke.
有些动词片语会包含介词 to，例如 to look forward to丶to take to丶to be accustomed to丶to get around to 和 to be used to。在这些情况下，务必要分辨「to」是介词还是不定词，因为这会决定后面是否要接动名词。您可以先查查看 to 是介词还是不定词的一部分。如果可以把代词 it 放在 to 后，可以构成有意义的句子，那么 to 这个字就是介词，而且后面必须接动名词。
举例
- I look forward to hearing from you soon.
- I look forward to it.
- I am used to waiting for buses.
- I am used to it.
- She didn't really take to studying English.
- She didn't really take to it.
- When will you get around to mowing the grass?
- When will you get around to it?
复合名词中的动名词
在使用动名词的复合名词中，很显然就是名词的意思，而不是持续性动词。例如，「swimming pool」这个字指的是一个可以游泳的池子，而非「游泳中的池子」。
举例
- I am giving Sally a driving lesson.
- They have a swimming pool in their back yard.
- I bought some new running shoes.
动名词接在某些词语后
在 can't help丶can't stand丶to be worth 和 it's no use 等词语后，必须接动名词。
举例
- She couldn't help falling in love with him.
- I can't stand being stuck in traffic jams.
- It's no use trying to escape.
- It might be worth phoning the station to check the time of the train.