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So I would like to know that which verbs have gerund and which ones have nouns that end with "tion". I don't know how to explain it but see the examples below:
Provide = providing but NOT providation
Love = Loving but NOT lovation
Urinate = urinating but ALSO urination
Irritate = irritating but ALSO irritation
How do I know which verbs have gerunds and which ones have "tion" form? And when should I use which one?
Thank you.
words ending in -tion and -sion are nouns and not gerunds. Most verbs ending in -ate and -ize and many others have a related noun. But there is no strict rule. The word ending in -tion is a word with related meaning:
So consider "to inform" This means "tell somebody something" I can use it as a gerund:
Informing your boss of any concerns should be done in the morning.
There is a related word "information", which means "data and facts"
You should give your boss the information.
You could not switch these, because the mean different things
Sometimes the gerund and -tion noun have similar meanings. But a gerund can have objects. You can say "fermenting beer" but not "fermentation beer".
There is no simple rule that can tell you if a word has a -tion noun that is related to it, nor what the "-tion" noun means. So these need to be learnt as individual words. But because the meaning is usually connected to the verb in some way, learning them is not so difficult, they are a good way to boost your vocabulary.
Gerunds are actually fairly rare in English. I'd normally phrase the initial example as
You should inform your boss of any concerns in the morning.
Gerunds are used, but not as often as in other languages. There are also infinitives and other ways to form a noun phrase from a clause.
