a.

as the subject of the sentence:

 Eating people is wrong.

 Hunting tigers is dangerous.
 Flying makes me nervous.

b. as the complement of the verb 'to be':

 One of his duties is attending meetings.

 The hardest thing about learning English is understanding the gerund.
 One of life's pleasures is having breakfast in bed.

c. after prepositions. The gerund must be used when a verb comes after a preposition:

 Can you sneeze without opening your mouth?

 She is good at painting.
 They're keen on windsurfing.
 She avoided him by walking on the opposite side of the road.
 We arrived in Madrid after driving all night.
 My father decided against postponing his trip to Hungary.

This is also true of certain expressions ending in a preposition, e.g. in spite of, there's no point
in..:

 There's no point in waiting.

 In spite of missing the train, we arrived on time.

d. after a number of 'phrasal verbs' which are composed of a verb + preposition/adverb

Example:
to look forward to, to give up, to be for/against, to take to, to put off, to keep on:

 I look forward to hearing from you soon. (at the end of a letter)
 When are you going to give up smoking?
 She always puts off going to the dentist.
 He kept on asking for money.

NOTE: There are some phrasal verbs and other expressions that include the word 'to' as a
preposition, not as part of a to-infinitive: - to look forward to, to take to, to be accustomed to, to
be used to. It is important to recognise that 'to' is a preposition in these cases, as it must be
followed by a gerund:

 We are looking forward to seeing you.

 I am used to waiting for buses.
 She didn't really take to studying English.

It is possible to check whether 'to� is a preposition or part of a to-infinitive: if you can put a
noun or the pronoun 'it' after it, then it is a preposition and must be followed by a gerund:

 I am accustomed to it (the cold).

 I am accustomed to being cold.

e. in compound nouns
Example:

 a driving lesson, a swimming pool, bird-watching, train-spotting

It is clear that the meaning is that of a noun, not of a continuous verb.

Example:

 the pool is not swimming, it is a pool for swimming in.

f. after the expressions:

can't help, can't stand, it's no use/good, and the adjective worth:

 She couldn't help falling in love with him.

 I can't stand being stuck in traffic jams.
 It's no use/good trying to escape.
 It might be worth phoning the station to check the time of the train.