Verbals: Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives

Infinitives, Gerunds and Participles

Navya 8B

Infinitives

• An infinitive is a verbal consisting of to + a verb, and it acts like a subject, direct object, subject complement, adjective, or adverb in a sentence.

• For example, 'She went to play football.'

• To identify an infinitive, just search for the to+verb form of the verb.

Multiple Choice

Which of these sentences contain an infinitive?

• I was studying at home yesterday when he called.

• We will be shifting to the new apartment this weekend.

• We have to study for a test, so I'm afraid we won't be able to make it.

• I went to the expensive parlor down the street.

Gerunds

• Gerunds are verbals that function as nouns and have an –ing ending.

• For example, 'Walking helps clear my mind'.

• To identify a gerund, search for a word that looks like a verb, and is in the -ing form but doesn't actually act as a verb.

Multiple Choice

I was baking cupcakes for my mother yesterday. Helping my mother makes me happy, especially when we work together. After that, I went to cycle in the neighborhood.

Which of the highlighted words is a gerund?

• Baking

• Helping

• Cycling

• None of these

Participles

There are two types of participles-Present participle and Past Participle.

Present Participle

• Present participle, always ending in -ing, is created from the form of a verb used with the verb to be(am, is, are, was, were, been) as an auxiliary verb 

• For example 'The other day, I was sitting in the park while my little sister was playing with her toys.'

• To identify a present participle, look for the -ing form of a verb.

Fill in the Blank

I saw them crossing the street.

Which word is the present participle? (Write the answer without caps or spaces in between)

Past Participle

• The past participles of all regular verbs end in -ed. Irregular verbs, however, have various past participle endings – for instance, thrown, ridden, built, and gone.

• For example, 'He found the house burned.'

• To identify a past participle, search for a verb that is in the -ed form, or a verb that works in the perfect tense.

Multiple Choice

Opening the door, he looks inside.

Which word is a participle?

• Opening

• Looks

• Door

• Inside

Open Ended

If you have any questions or doubts related to the topic, please type them here.

Multiple Choice

Her most important achievement was winning the national championship.

Identify the gerund.

• Achievement

• Winning

• National

• Championship

Multiple Select

Looking out the window, Lisa took a deep breath. She couldn't wait to get the results of her exam, as she was studying very hard the previous night.

Which of these does the sentence not contain?

• Gerund

• Present Participle

• Past Participle

• Infinitive

Multiple Choice

What is a gerund?

• A gerund is the -ed form of the verb, or a different form for irregular verbs.

• A gerund is the to+verb form of the verb

• None of these

Fill in the Blank

___(Search) for her gloves, she dug through the entire wardrobe.

Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verb. (Don't use caps or spaces)

Hint-participles

Fill in the Blank

We cannot afford ___ (hesitate)

Fill in the Blank

They stopped having lunch at the restaurant.

The highlighted word is an example of which verbal?

(gerund, infinitive, past participle or present participle)

Open Ended

Write an example each of gerunds, infinitives, present participles and past participles in a sentence.