Gerund vs present continuous

Question

Hi. I'm a big fan of this site, for many reasons, so I am pointing this out in a spirit of collaboration, not criticism: I think this page should refer to "present continuous" and "present participles", not gerunds.

The gerund is a form, derived from a verb, which ends in --ing, but it is the noun from the verb. This page is all about an alternative verb form.

For example: "Smoking is bad for you."

"Smoking" is a gerund, as it has become a noun.

"That man is smoking" is the present continuous form of the verb. "Smoking" in this sentence is the present participle, i.e. not a gerund.

I am prepared to accept that this might be a US/UK English thing; I'd be very interested to hear if this were the case.

Best wishes

Andrew Wenger

Accepted Answer

Hola Andrew
There might be a slightly overuse of the word "gerund" only because in Spanish we call a "gerundio" all forms ending in -ando and -iendo ( the English -ing form) regardless of the function of the word in the sentence, that being part of a verbal structure (e.g. Estoy comiendo) or any other sort of function like an adverb for example (e.g. Me miró sonriendo).
 
In our lessons that are related to conjugating progressive tenses we use the term "present participle" as they are part of the verb, and in other lessons that are talking about the formation of a gerund / present participle we use both terms as the examples in those lessons are using sentences where sometimes they are gerunds and sometimes present participles.
If there is a lesson in particular that you found and you thought the term used is incorrect, please let us know so we can double check. 
It's nice to hear that you enjoy our site! 
Gracias por tus comentarios.
Un saludo
Inma