Lesson 239 - Parts of the Sentence - Verbals

View lesson on Daily Grammar

A verbal is a verb form used as some other part of speech. There are three kinds of verbals: gerunds, participles, and infinitives.

A gerund always ends in ing and is used as a noun. 

 

Example: 

Eating is fun.

A participle is used as an adjective and ends various ways. A present participle always ends with ing as does the gerund, but remember that it is an adjective. A past participle ends with ed, n, or irregularly.  

 

Examples: 

played, broken, brought, sung, seeing, having seen, being seen, seen, having been seen

An infinitive is to plus a verb form. It can be a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. 

 

Examples: 

to be, to see, to be seen, to be eaten

Instructions: Find the gerunds, gerund phrases, participles, participial phrases, infinitives, or infinitive phrases in these sentences, tell what kind of verbal they are, and how they are used.

1. The glancing blow did little damage.

2. Go to the dictionary to look for the answer.

3. This computer game is easy to play and to understand.

4. Have you tried writing it down daily?

5. His chief interests are skiing and racing.

--For answers scroll down.

Answers:

1. The glancing blow did little damage.

- glancing (participle) modifying the subject blow

2. Go to the dictionary to look for the answer.

- to look for the answer (adverb infinitive phrase) modifying the verb go

3. This computer game is easy to play and to understand.

- to play/to understand (adverb infinitives) modifying the predicate adjective easy

4. Have you tried writing it down daily?

- writing it down daily (gerund phrase) used as the direct object

5. His chief interests are skiing and racing.

- skiing/racing (gerunds) used as predicate nominatives

Next Lesson

For your convenience, all of our lessons are available on our website in our lesson archive. Our lessons are also available to purchase in an eBook and a workbook format.