A gerund is the present participle form of the verb used as a noun. Like nouns, gerunds can be subjects or objects:

SUBJECT GERUND

–Playing golf is fun.

OBJECT GERUND

–We're used to having a lot of fun.

In the second example, the gerund having is the object of the preposition to. This pattern is fairly frequent in English.

By is often used with gerunds to describe how something is done:

–By calling the office, you'll be able to know what's going on.

Here are a number of common verbs followed by gerunds:

finish–They finished working at 6 p.m.
stop–I stopped calling you at midnight.
quit–They quit eating for 24 hours.
avoid–You can't avoid answering the question.
keep (on)–They will keep on studying.
enjoy–My neighbor enjoys walking his dog.
appreciate–She would appreciate hearing from you.
mind–Do they mind selling their car?

NOTE: Go is followed by a gerund in certain idiomatic expressions related to sports and physical activities.

–Did they go shopping yesterday?
–They went sailing at the lake.
–We are going skiing this winter in the Rockies.

Examples of Using Gerunds

• My friends went swimming last night.
• Camping in the Smokies is a lot of fun.