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(gerund phrase as the complement of a preposition) Using gerunds of the appropriate auxiliary verbs, one can form gerund clauses that express perfect aspect and passive voice: Being deceived can make someone feel angry. (passive) Having read the book once before makes me more prepared. (perfect) He is ashamed of having been gambling all night.
A gerund is a verb form that appears in positions that are usually reserved for nouns. In English, a gerund has the same form as a progressive active participle and so ends in -ing. Gerunds typically appear as subject or object noun phrases or even as the object of a preposition:
Some verbs can take either a to+infinitive construction or a gerund construction (for example, to start to do something/to start doing something). For example, the gerund is more common: In AmE than BrE, with start, [1]: 515 begin, [1]: 67 omit, enjoy; In BrE than AmE, with love, [26] like, intend. [27]
For all uses of specific perfect constructions, see the sections below on the present perfect, past perfect, future perfect, and conditional perfect. By using non-finite forms of the auxiliary have , perfect aspect can also be marked on infinitives (as in should have left and expect to have finished working ), and on participles and gerunds (as ...
There is a perfect infinitive (to) have written and a perfect progressive infinitive (to) have been writing, and corresponding present participle/gerund forms having written and having been writing. A perfect subjunctive (have written) is also sometimes used. Future and conditional perfect forms are given below.
Resultative perfect (referring to a state in the present which is the result or endpoint of an event in the past): "I have lost my pen-knife" (message: I still don't have it) Continuative perfect (past situations continuing into present): "I have always guided him" Anterior perfect (completed past situations, but with relevance to the present):
Most verbs have three or four inflected forms in addition to the base form: a third-person singular present tense form in -(e)s (writes, botches), a present participle and gerund form in -ing (writing), a past tense (wrote), and – though often identical to the past tense form – a past participle (written).
There is a perfect form in both tenses, which is expressed by an inflected form of the imperfective auxiliary verb έχω "have" and an invariant verb form derived from the perfective stem of the main verb. The perfect form is much rarer than in English. The non-past perfect form is a true perfect aspect as in English.