Verbals

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Verbals

• Participles, Gerunds, and Infinitives

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Verbals What are they?

• A verbal is a word that is formed from a verb but
  acts as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb.
• Verbals may be used alone in a sentence
• Eating is essential to life.
• Verbals may be used as part of a verbal phrase
• Eating healthy foods may extend your life.

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Participle
A participle is a verb form that is used as an
adjective.
Im having an identity crisis.
Verb
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Present Participles
Present participles are formed by adding ing to
the plain form of the verb. Examples The
grinning cat perched in the tree. Stretching
along the branch, it proceeded to take a nap.
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Past Participles
Past participles are formed by adding ed, to the
plain form of the verb. Others may be formed as
irregular verbs. My dachshund had a bewildered
look on her face. Soaked to the bone, she ran
from the sprinkler system.
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Examples The developing storm kept small boats
in port. Pleased with her acheivements, the
student smiled broadly.
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Gerunds
A gerund is a verb form used as a noun.
The gerund is formed by adding ing to the
present tense of the verb Jog jogging
Jogging is good exercise. Jogging at night can
be dangerous.
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Gerunds can be used as A subject
Jogging is a popular form of exercise. A
predicate nominative One popular form of
exercise is jogging. A direct object
My sister enjoys jogging. Enjoys what?
jogging An object of the preposition
These shoes are made for jogging. Dont
confuse gerunds with present participles A
participle is a verb form that acts like an
adjective. participle
jogging shoes
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Infinitive An infinitive is a verb that usually
begins with the word to and acts as a noun, and
adjective, or an adverb.
to run to see to hear
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Infinitives can be used as

• A noun To win the race was Joes only desire.
• An adjective Lous attempt to answer all of the
  questions was successful. (What kind of attempt?)
• An adverb To escape poverty, Tom studied hard.
  (Studied why?)

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WARNING The word to is a preposition when it
is followed by a noun or pronoun that is its
object.
I need a ride to the game. We
went to Jeffs party.
Prepositions To check whether the phrase is
an infinitive or a preposition, look at what
follows to. to verb infinitive (to eat) to
noun/pronoun preposition (to the store)
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Now lets practice!

• Grammar for Writing Workbook
• Pages 139-141, Gerunds and Gerund Phrases