Voice disтinctions of тhe gerund

The Gerund of transitive verbs can be active and passive. The active form of the Gerund shows that the action denoted by the Gerund is performed by the subject of the sentence, by the direct object of the predicate or by the person or thing expressed in the gerundial complex.

The action is performed by the subject of the sentence:

She insisted on talking to us.

She denied having ever talked to him.

The action is performed by the direct object:

She prevented him from going there.

The suspected her of having lied to them.

The action is performed by the person or thing expressed in the gerundial complex:

She insisted on his talking friendly to her.

We are aware of her having failed the exam.

The passive form of the Gerund shows that the subject of the sentence or the person or thing expressed in the gerundial complex are the receivers (objects) of the action denoted by the Gerund.

The subject is the receiver of the action:

She insisted on being talked to.

She denied having been talked to.

The person or thing expressed in the gerundial complex is the receiver of the action:

We prevented his being punished.

He boasted of the work having been finished on time.

Note:

After the verbs want, need, deserve, require and the adjective worth the active form of the Gerund is used though it is passive in meaning.

This room needs cleaning.

This sight is worth seeing.

Non-transitive (Subjective) verbs have only two forms of the Gerund. They have no passive forms.

I like coming to their place at weekends.

They like my coming to their place at weekends.

They denied having ever come here.

FORMS OF THE GERUND

Tense / Voice	Active	Passive
Non-perfect Indefinite (Simple)	doing	being done
Perfect Simple	having done	having been done

Negative forms are made by putting the negative particle ‘not’ before the gerund:

She is unhappy about not being invited to your parties.

Predicative constructions (complexes) with the gerund

In predicative constructions the Gerund is in predicate relation to а noun or а pronoun.

If the nominal element denotes а living being it can be expressed in the following ways:

а) а noun in the common or genitive case:

I’m grateful for my friend’s (my friend) helping me out.

b) а possessive pronoun:

I can’t remember his having even one close friend.

c) а personal pronoun in the objective case:

He liked me working late hours.

d) an indefinite, defining or negative pronoun:

I don’t remember anybody (anybody’s) saying it.

He boasted of everybody praising his report.

We were surprised at all coming to meet us.

We apologize for nobody meeting you at the airport.

e) а reflexive pronoun.

She couldn’t stop herself crying.

Note:

In an informal style the common case of a noun instead of the genitive case and the objective case of the personal pronoun instead of the possessive pronoun are usually used after a verb or a preposition:

I don’t mind him joining us.

We objected to John leaving.

If the nominal element denotes а lifeless thing it can be expressed in the following ways:

a) а noun in the common case:

She was glad enough of the arm gliding along under her elbow.

He insisted on the essay being published in all the morning newspapers.

b) а possessive pronoun: