PRACTICE YOUR ENGLISH

Even some teachers of English confuse the present participle with a gerund. Both have the -ing form, but the present participle is verbal, while the gerund is a noun.

Look at these two sentences:

I'm driving the car.
('driving' in this case is a verbal form, therefore it's a participle)

I like driving.
(In this example 'driving' is the noun (gerund) and 'like' is the verb)

Likewise, you can say:

I loved swimming
I was swimming in the sea

Can you see the difference?