Gerunds and Participles Relationship
Gerunds and participles are both verbals derived from verbs, but they serve different functions in a sentence. A participle is a form of a verb used as an adjective to modify a noun or pronoun, while a gerund functions as a noun in a sentence. In the first sentence, "I saw him sitting there," the word "sitting" acts as a participle, modifying the pronoun "him." It describes what "him" was doing at that moment. In contrast, in the second sentence, "Sitting idly is not in my habit," "sitting" functions as a gerund and serves as the subject of the sentence. Both gerunds and participles are formed from verbs; however, gerunds end in -ing and function as nouns, while participles can also end in -ing but act as adjectives. Therefore, while they share a common origin, their roles in a sentence are distinct and demonstrate their relationship as different forms of verbals.
Active and Passive Voice
The sentence "The girl recited the poem beautifully" is in the active voice. In active voice sentences, the subject performs the action of the verb, which is evident here: "the girl" is the subject who is performing the action of reciting. To convert this sentence to passive voice, I would write, "The poem was recited beautifully by the girl." In this passive construction, the focus shifts from the subject (the girl) to the object of the action (the poem). This highlights the poem instead of the girl, illustrating the distinction between active and passive voice.