---
title: "Present Participles & Gerunds"
description: "How to form German present participles (verb as adjective, add -d to infinitive) and gerunds (verb as noun, capitalize the infinitive) — with examples."
source: "https://germanforenglishspeakers.com/verbs/present-participles-and-gerunds"
crawled: "2026-06-30"
---

# Present Participles & Gerunds

It's a little harder for native English speakers to remember the difference between these two forms, because in English they have the same -ing ending. But in German (and most other languages) they're formed differently.

The **present participle** is a way of using a verb as an adjective, and in German it's only used right before a noun, as in "**running** water" or "**barking** dogs." It's formed by adding a –d to the end of the infinitive, then the normal adjective case endings:

_Auf der A1 ist **fließender** Verkehr._ (traffic report)
\[Smoothly\] **flowing** traffic on the A1.

Don't confuse the present participle with the more common _past_ participle that we've been discussing up till now. You can also use the past participle as an adjective, but of course it has a different meaning (think of _breaking glass_ vs. _broken glass_).

A **gerund** is a verb used as a noun, as in "The **Taming** of the Shrew" or "the **running** of the bulls." The gerund in German is just the infinitive, capitalized. (Like all nouns.) All gerunds are neuter, and when there's a plural, it has no added ending or umlaut.

You often see the gerund on signs, in both German and English:

_**Rauchen** tötet_
**Smoking** kills

_**Parken** verboten_
No **parking** \[literally "parking forbidden"\]

[Continue to next section >>](/verbs/the-continuous-and-progressive-aspects.md)