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present participle vs. gerund

present participle

[ prez-uhnt pahr-tuh-sip-uhl ]
noun
  1. a participle, in English having the suffix -ing, that expresses repetition or duration of an activity or event: used as an adjective, as in thegrowingweeds and thesettingsun, and also in forming progressive verb constructions, as in The weeds aregrowing and The sun wassetting.

gerund

[ jer-uhnd ]
noun
  1. (in certain languages, as Latin) a form regularly derived from a verb and functioning as a noun, having in Latin all case forms but the nominative, as Latin dicendī genitive, dicendō dative, ablative, etc., “saying.”
  2. the English -ing form of a verb when functioning as a noun, as writing in Writing is easy.
  3. a form similar to the Latin gerund in meaning or function.