What is the difference between a gerund and a gerundive?

The main difference between a gerund and a gerundive is: - GERUND = verbal NOUN - GERUNDIVE = verbal ADJECTIVE To see what this actually means, it is perhaps easiest to look at them first in the English: A gerund/ verbal noun: I love RUNNING - in this sentence ‘RUNNING’ is the gerund/ verbal noun, it is the act of running a.k.a the noun of the verb ‘run’. Here are some more examples (Gerunds/ verbal nouns in capitals): -He loved READING -She preferred RUNNING to SWIMMING -EATING was their favourite pastime A gerundive/ verbal adjective is harder to put into English, but is best described as ‘to be (verb)’. Here are some examples to demonstrate this more clearly: “The book was to be read” - The ‘to be read’ is the gerundive, because ‘to be read’ is describing the book. “The film is not to be missed” - The same applies here, ‘to be missed’ is describing the film. As you can see, it doesn’t translate that well into English, but this is one of the best ways of highlighting the difference. Another tip is to remember: gerundIVE = adjectIVE Now to look at the differences in Latin: Both the gerund and gerundive add ‘-nd’ to the stem of the verb as so: - 1st conjugation: amo, are = amand- - 2nd conjugation: moneo, ere = monend- - 3rd conjugation: rego, ere = regend- - 4th conjugation: audio, ire = audiend- After this the gerund and gerundive differ in their construction: The GERUND is neuter and therefore takes the neuter endings: -um, -um, -i, -o, -o Example: ars amandi - the art of loving The GERUNDIVE, however, agrees in number gender and case of that which it is describing, much like an adjective. These are the key differences between the gerund and the gerundive.

Answered by Holly C. Latin tutor

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