動名詞
動名詞は現在分詞と全く同じように見えますが、これら二つの違いを理解しておくと役に立ちます。動名詞は(動詞のように見えますが)名詞と同じように機能します。このページでは、動名詞の使い方の一部を取り上げています。 動名詞が後に続く動詞は、別のページをご覧下さい。
文章の主語となる動名詞
Examples
- Eating people is wrong.
- Hunting tigers is dangerous.
- Flying makes me nervous.
- Brushing your teeth is important.
- Smoking causes lung cancer.
動詞 'to be'を補足する動名詞
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.
前置詞の後の動名詞
動詞が前置詞の後に来る場合は、動名詞にしなければなりません。これは、in spite of や there's no point inといった表現など、前置詞で終わる特定の表現でも同じです。
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.
句動詞の後の動名詞
句動詞は動詞 + 前置詞あるいは 副詞から成ります。
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.
句動詞の中には、to look forward to, to take to, to be accustomed to, to get around to, や to be used toなど"to" を前置詞とするものもあります。この場合、動名詞が後に続く必要があるので、"to" は動詞の不定詞ではなく前置詞であることを認識することが重要です。 "to" が前置詞か不定詞の一部であるかを確かめるには、"to" の後に代名詞 "it" をつけて意味の通る文章になれば、 その"to"は前置詞ですので、動名詞が後に来なければなりません。
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?
複合名詞の中の動名詞
複合名詞の中の動名詞は、継続動詞ではなく、名詞の意味を持つことは明らかです。例えば"swimming pool" は、泳ぐためのプールで、泳いでいるプールではありません。.
例
- I am giving Sally a driving lesson.
- They have a swimming pool in their back yard.
- I bought some new running shoes.
ある表現の後の動名詞
動名詞は、can't help, can't stand, to be worth, や it's no useといった表現の後に必要です。
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.