Verbals
are nouns or adjectives that are formed from a verb. It can sometimes be confusing to determine whether a word is
a verbal or a verb, but it is really simpler than it seems at first glance.
The difference between verbals and other nouns and adjectives is that
verbals can take their own objects, even thought they are not used as verbs.
There are three types of verbals:
the participle (which acts as an adjective), the gerund (which acts as a
noun), and the infinitive (which also acts as a noun).
Since verbals are formed with verbs, and look like verbs, it can cause a
problem for students before they learn how to recognize and use them properly.
The two most common problems in using verbals are:
1)
Writing an incomplete sentence, thinking that the verbal is a verb instead.
Correct: For
Marcy, dancing the last dance with Lloyd was exciting.
(dancing (the last dance with
Lloyd) is a gerund and the subject of the sentence.
“Dancing . . .was exciting.”)
Incorrect: Marcy,
dancing the last dance with Lloyd.
(There is no verb in this sentence.
dancing
is a verbal).
2)
Treating participles and gerunds as if they were the same.
Randolph
liked the entertainer singing the ballad.
(Singing
in this sentence
is a participle identifying entertainer.
It tells which entertainer Randolph liked.
Randolph liked the entertainer’s singing the ballad. (Singing in this sentence is a gerund. Randolph liked the fact of that singing. Entertainer’s is a possessive noun modifying singing.)
A gerund is a noun formed from a verb. To make a gerund, you add -ing to the verb, just as with a present participle. Because gerunds are nouns, they can be the subject, direct object, subject complement, and object of preposition in a sentence. Gerunds hardly ever need any special punctuation. The fundamental difference is that a gerund is a noun, while a participle is an adjective.
Participle:
Rod has a new swimming pool.
(swimming is an adjective modifying the noun pool.)
Gerund:
Rod loves swimming.
(swimming
is a noun acting as the direct object of loves,
which is the verb.)
Reading should not be a
substitution for action. (Subject)
No one appreciates his cursing.
(Direct object)
Simon’s favorite pastime is driving.
(Subject complement)
He was fired for sleeping on the job. (Object of the preposition)
REMEMBER:
A gerund is a verbal that ends in
-ing and is used as a
noun.
A gerund phrase consists of a gerund plus
any modifiers, objects,
and complements.
Gerunds and gerund phrases hardly ever need special
punctuation.
Test
Yourself:
How do the gerunds or gerund
phrases (underlined)
function in each sentence? (subject,
direct object, subject complement, or object of preposition).
Dieting
makes me irritable.
Monte recommends
practicing
English every day.
Our worst mistake was
trusting
the used-car salesman.
Bettina scolded Beverly
for
fearing the dark.
Cooking
in the wilderness can be a challenge.
Brian’s worst fear is
losing
his hair.
Stephen says
ballroom
dancing is for sissies.
Some students fail courses because of studying too little.
A participle is a verb usually ending in -ed or -ing that is used as an adjective. Participles are verbals, and express action or condition; however, participles function as adjectives, thus modifying nouns or pronouns. Present participles end in -ing, while past participles end in -ed, -en, -d, -t, or –n. Past participles are not all formed the same way, because not all verbs form the past tense the same way.
Present participles:
walk changes to walking, smile changes to
smiling, run changes to running
Past participles: hold
changes
to held, throw changes to thrown, bring changes to brought
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NOTE:
Only transitive verbs* can use their past participles as
adjectives. * A
transitive verb is
one that needs a direct object to complete its meaning.
An intransitive verb
is a verb that does not require a direct object to complete its meaning:
and unlike other verbals, past
participles do not take objects (unless they are part of a compound
verb, that is, the participle plus an auxiliary or "helping" verb such
as were, was, had, been, and will for example).
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A participial phrase must be placed as close to the noun it
modifies as possible, and the noun must be clearly stated.
Crawling across the floor,
his pants tore on a nail.
(Who
was crawling across the floor? his
pants? This is called a dangling
modifier because the participle (modifier) isn’t modifying any particular
noun.)
Crawling across the floor,
he tore his pants on a nail.
(He was crawling. The noun or pronoun that the participial phrase modifies
comes right after the phrase.)
When a participial phrase begins a sentence, a comma should
follow it immediately.
Missing the train,
Don had to take the bus to Texas.
Painting and plastering,
Mr. Lee discovered he had a flair for home repair.
When the participle or participial phrase is in the middle
of a sentence, set it off with commas IF the information is not essential to the
meaning of the sentence.
Vanessa,
trying to read, kept falling asleep.
(Non-essential information)
Our cousin,
unannounced, visited us on vacation.
(Non-essential information)
When the participial phrase is needed to understand the
meaning of the sentence, no commas should be used:
The student earning
the highest grade point average
will receive a
special award.
The guy
wearing
the chicken costume
is my cousin.
When a participial phrase comes at the end of a sentence, a
comma usually precedes the phrase if it modifies an earlier word in the sentence
but not if the phrase directly follows the word it modifies.
The aliens from the planet Zoog often
watched humans going about their activities.
(The phrase modifies human, not aliens.)
The humans nervously watched the
aliens, wondering about their motives.
(The phrase modifies humans, not aliens.)
REMEMBER:
1. A participle is a verbal ending in -ing (present) or
ed,
en, d, t, n, or the irregular form (past).
2.
A participle is used as an adjective, modifying a noun or
pronoun.
3. A participial phrase consists of a participle plus and modifiers, objects, and/or complements.
4. Participles and participial phrases must be placed as close to
the nouns or pronouns they modify as possible, and those nouns or pronouns must
be clearly stated.
5. A participial phrase is set off with commas when it:
a) comes at the beginning of a sentence,
b) interrupts a sentence as a nonessential element,
c) comes at the end of a sentence and is separated from the word it modifies.
Test
Yourself:
What noun or pronoun does the participial phrase
(underlined) in each sentence modify?
1. Arriving early, they got the best place in line.
2. Ruined by the storm, the tree will have to come down.
3. Many people think that only good-looking partners offer the type of companionship bringing true happiness.
4. The overworked employees went on strike.
5. He reneged on the loan, risking his credit.
In the sentences below, underline the participial phrase,
tell what word
it modifies, and re-write the sentence with the needed
punctuation (if any is needed at all).
7. Angela behaving out of the ordinary did an Irish jig on the table.
8. Helen forgotten by her boyfriend had to take the bus to the concert.
9. The job will be offered to the person ranking highest in the aptitude test.
10. Screaming in anger the twins demanded feeding.
Gerunds are used as nouns.
Participles are used as adjectives.
In the
A, B, C sentences, the gerunds (-ing words) are nouns—a specific action or behavior that is the reason
for the reaction of the subject. In
the A1, B1, C1 sentences, the participles (also
-ing words) are adjectives,
describing or modifying a noun or pronoun.
You can see that sometimes, using a participle instead of a gerund makes
the meaning of the sentence not only less precise, but sometimes confusing if
you aren’t very careful in the construction.
A.
Susanne was annoyed by Jim’s clumsy
dancing. (The dancing
annoyed Susanne)
A1.
Susanne was annoyed by Jim clumsily
dancing. (Jim, who happened to be
dancing, annoyed Susanne. You can
see that this is not as precise a meaning as the A version.)
B.
The queen was not amused with their
posturing. (The
posturing didn’t amuse the queen.)
B1.
The queen was not amused with them
posturing. (They did not amuse her as they postured.)
C.
He loved her winsome smiling.
(He loved her smile)
C1.
He loved her winsomely smiling.
(He loves her, but maybe only when she is smiling.)
Infinitives are verbals consisting of the word to plus a
base form verb, together functioning as a noun, adjective, or adverb. The infinitive may function as a subject, direct object,
subject complement, adjective, or adverb in a sentence. An infinitive is easy to identify in a sentence because of
the to + verb form, but it isn’t always as easy to identify the function
it plays in the sentence.
(Remember
that a prepositional phrase could begin with to also, but is followed by a
noun or a pronoun plus any modifiers.)
To
cry seems useless in an emergency.
(subject)
No
one wanted to
remain.
(direct object)
Carrie’s
dream is to swim
the channel. (subject
complement)
Earth
is a great place to vacation.
(adjective)
We
have to work to succeed.
(adverb)
Infinitive Phrases
are
groups of words consisting of an infinitive and any modifiers, nouns, pronouns,
or noun phrases that function as the actor*,
direct object, indirect object, or complement of the action or state
expressed in the infinitive, such as:
Dominic planned
to eat later.
(to
eat (infinitive)
later (adverb modifying the infinitive
to eat.)
The entire phrase is the
direct object of the verb
planned.
Jack had three cars
to
repair before he could leave the shop.
(to repair is an adjective
modifying cars)
Dolly decided to
open two
classrooms.
(to open is the direct object of
the verb decided; two classrooms is the direct object of the action to open.)
The entire phrase is a direct object.
Sandy asked her
to call him.
(The
infinitive phrase is the direct object of the verb asked.
her is the actor or "subject" of the infinitive phrase; to
call (infinitive) him (direct object of action expressed in infinitive)
*Actors are rather like
subjects of a sentence, that is, they are the focal point of the action or state shown in
the infinitive. Of course
infinitive phrases are not independent clauses with a subject and a finite verb.
When the “actor” is a pronoun, it is in the
objective case (me, him, her, us). Some verbs,
when they take an infinitive direct object, require an actor for the infinitive
phrase; others can't have an actor, and others can go either way.
1.
Verbs that take infinitive objects without actors:
agree
begin
continue decide
remember
fail
hesitate hope
start
learn
neglect
offer
plan
try
prefer
intend pretend promise
refuse
They agreed to leave.
Lawrence learned to dance.
We planned to stay.
Sarah promised to call.
Bob started
to sing.
With all of the
words and examples above an actor can never come between the main verb and
the infinite direct object phrase! Try
reading the sentences aloud and inserting an
actor
and see how it sounds.
Makes no sense does it?
2.
Verbs that take infinitive objects with actors:
advise
allow
convince remind
implore order
instruct
force
appoint
permit
invite
tell
incite
teach
hire
encourage
Rachel invited me to dine.
Hank taught his friends to roller skate.
Everyone encourages Michelle to teach.
The lawyer convinced
him to plead
guilty.
With all of the
words and examples above an actor
is
required after the main verb and before the infinitive direct-object phrase.
Try reading the sentences aloud without the
actor
and see how it
sounds.
3. Verbs that use can either use or not use an actor:
ask,
expect, (would) like, want
I
expected to hear
a rock band at the concert.
(no actor)
I
expected him to
take me home. (him
is the “actor”)
Will
wanted Julie
to walk. (Julie
is the actor
)
Will
wanted to go.
(no actor
)
She
would like to
have a steak please.
(no
actor
)
She
would like them
to eat. (them is the actor
)
When an infinitive is used as an adverb and the beginning phrase in a
sentence, set it off with a comma; otherwise, no punctuation is needed for an
infinitive phrase.
To buy a basket of flowers, John had
to spend his last dollar.
To improve your writing, you must consider your purpose and audience.
REMEMBER:
1. An infinitive (verbal) consists of
to plus the base form of a verb and may be used as a noun, adjective, or adverb.
2. An infinitive phrase consists of an
infinitive plus any modifiers, objects, complements, and/or actors.
3.
An infinitive phrase requires a comma
only if it is used as an adverb at the beginning of a sentence.
Spilt infinitives:
A
split infinitive
means that another word or words have been put between the to and the verb
of the infinitive. It used to be
considered incorrect to do this, but now split infinitives are more common and accepted
for informal usage if a single adverb has been put between the to and the verb.
It is still considered incorrect to
use split infinitives in formal writing however.
Correct: Mattie
likes to slowly
stroll in the
park on a beautiful evening. (INFORMAL
USAGE--one adverb used between the to and the verb)
Correct: On
a beautiful evening, Mattie likes to stroll
slowly in the park. (FORMAL
USAGE)
Incorrect: Mattie likes to on a beautiful evening stroll in the park. (Too many words splitting the infinitive confuse the sentence.)
Correct: Captain
Kirk wanted to boldly
go where no man
had gone before. (INFORMAL
USAGE--one adverb used between the to and the verb)
Correct: Captain
Kirk wanted to go boldly where no
man had gone before. (FORMAL
USAGE)
Identify the infinitive and how it is being used (part of
speech) in the sentence.
2.
Captain Wilson's one wish is to hear her sing.
3.
That was a great movie to watch.
4.
To be or not to be, that is the question.
5.
We need to eat to live.
Identify the infinitive phrase and how it is being used
(part of speech).
7.
Baby Huey likes to hug his teddy bear when he is scared.
8.
We expected Bob to train the new employees.
9.
Those who fight then run away, live to fight another day.
10.
To remodel a house is a messy, tedious job.
11.
The class wanted to buy the teacher a housewarming gift.
12.
Dirk doesn’t have any spare money to give us.
13.
Fatima dressed in silk to attract the men.
14.
Koko the clown taught his monkey to play the bongo drums.
15.
To dream the impossible dream is Don’s model for life.
16.
To know him is to love him.
1. Gerunds
are formed by adding an
-ing ending
to a verb. They are used as nouns.
(eating, drinking, laughing, sleeping, driving, etc.)
2. Infinitives are formed by
putting to in
front of a base form verb. They are
used as nouns, adjectives and adverbs. (to
eat, to drink, to laugh, to sleep, to drive, etc.)
Since both gerunds
and infinitives can be used as nouns, you might get confused, especially when
their function in a sentence is that of a direct object.
There are some verbs which take only gerunds as direct objects.
There are some that take only infinitives.
And of course there are some that will take either a gerund or an
infinitive as a direct object. Try
to learn theses, and soon you can tell just by the “sound” of a sentence
which type of direct object to use. The
verbs listed below are not all verbs in these categories.
Verbs that take only infinitives as verbal direct objects:
agree
decide
expect
hesitate
propose learn
need
plan
promise
neglect
intend
hope
want
pretend
attempt
I needed
to water my flowers.
(NOT: I needed watering
my flowers.)
Juliet hoped to get a cashmere sweater. (NOT: Juliet hoped getting a cashmere sweater.)
Isaac
promised to write
her a letter. (NOT: Isaac
promised
writing her a letter)
Since Herbert was sleepy, he
decided
to go to bed.
(NOT: . . .he decided going
to bed.)
We hesitated
to sell our property.
(NOT: We hesitated selling our
property.)
Verbs that take only gerunds as verbal direct objects:
| deny | delay | consider | keep | mind |
| get/be tired of | get/be through | give up | finish | quit |
| get/be accustomed to | miss | recommend | keep on | put off |
| enjoy | avoid | practice | postpone | risk |
| tolerate | suggest | stop | get/be used to | recall |
| detest | dislike | admit | appreciate | can't help |
| be fond of |
Barry
got accustomed to drinking
unsweetened ice tea. (NOT: “got
accustomed to drink . . .”)
Douglas
suggested moving
the table before mopping the floor.
(NOT:
“suggested to move
. . .”)
They detested
driving after dark.
(NOT: They detested to drive
after dark.)
Nick misses
taking long walks with his sweetheart.
(NOT: “misses
to take long walks . . .”)
Some verbs can take gerunds or infinitives as verbal direct
objects:
start
begin
continue hate
prefer
remember like
love
try
Milt hates
to open his
mail. Milo hates opening his
mail.
Crystal
remembered to turn off the stove.
Crystal remembered
turning off the
stove.
Cindy tried to tap-dance and failed.
Cindy tried
tap-dancing and
failed
Forget and remember:
These two verbs change meaning depending on whether a gerund or
infinitive is used as the object. (For the past tense of the
verb, and when using the gerund construction, you may want to use the past
progressive gerund form “having called” (or
whatever gerund you use) can be used in place
of “calling” to avoid any possible confusion.
Helen
remembers to call
her mother. (She
constantly remembers.) Helen
remembers calling
her mother. (She called and remembers
doing it just now.)
Helen
remembered to call
her mother. (She
called her.)
Helen remembered calling
her mother. (She
did it, and remembered later that she did.)
Helen
forgets to call
her mother. (She
regularly forgets.)
Helen forgets calling
her mother. (She called, but doesn’t
remember calling.)
Helen forgot
to call her mother.
(She never called.) Helen forgot calling
her mother. (She did it, but later didn’t remember
calling.)
Some
sense verbs-- feel, hear, notice, watch, see, smell, observe—take
an object plus a gerund or a simple verb (a simple verb is the base form of the
verb—no to added). The use
of a gerund shows continuous action, and the use of the simple verb shows
one-time action.
He
noticed them breaking
the window. (continuous
action)
He
noticed them break
the window. (one-time
action)
Jeff
heard Colin reading a poem.
(continuous action)
Jeff
heard Colin read a poem.
(one-time action)
Annie
could see Caleb belly dancing. (continuous
action)
Annie
could see Caleb belly dance.
(one-time action)
They
could smell hamburgers cooking inside.
(continuous action)
They
could smell hamburgers cook
inside. (one-time action)
We
watched the bridge collapsing.
(continuous action)
We
watched the bridge collapse.
(one-time action)