VOCABULARY REVIEW · THE GERUND AND GERUNDIVE · THE PREDICATE GENITIVE
[401.] Review the word lists in [§§ 510], [511].
[402.] The Gerund. Suppose we had to translate the sentence
By overcoming the Gauls Cæsar won great glory
We can see that overcoming here is a verbal noun corresponding to the English infinitive in -ing, and that the thought calls for the ablative of means. To translate this by the Latin infinitive would be impossible, because the infinitive is indeclinable and therefore has no ablative case form. Latin, however, has another verbal noun of corresponding meaning, called the gerund, declined as a neuter of the second declension in the genitive, dative, accusative, and ablative singular, and thus supplying the cases that the infinitive lacks.1 Hence, to decline in Latin the verbal noun overcoming, we should use the infinitive for the nominative and the gerund for the other cases, as follows:
| Nom. | superāre | overcoming to overcome | Infinitive |
Gen. Dat. Acc. Abl. | superandī, of overcoming superandō, for overcoming superandum, overcoming superandō, by overcoming | Gerund | |
Like the infinitive, the gerund governs the same case as the verb from which it is derived. So the sentence given above becomes in Latin
Superandō Gallōs Caesar magnam glōriam reportāvit
1. Sometimes, however, the infinitive is used as an accusative.
[403.] The gerund2 is formed by adding -ndī, -ndō, -ndum, -ndō, to the present stem, which is shortened or otherwise changed, as shown below: