Verbal Phrases
What is wrong with these sentences?
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The ad for the car begins with a couple driving down the beach in their Hummer, enjoying the
perfect setting in a huge 6,400 pound vehicle.
I saw a whale sitting on the dock.
The pilot, tailing horribly because of a gas leak in the plane, soon crashed.
Infinitive Phrases: to + verb (e.g. “To succeed where others had failed is my life’s goal”). These
phrases function as a noun.
Participial Phrases: Formed with either present participials (ing) or past participials (ed) These phrases
function as adjectives that modify
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(e.g.) Our branch office submitted a complete report, giving details about this transaction
with J&M Associates.”
Gerund Phrases: (ing) phrases that function as a noun
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(e.g.) Feeding stray cats became my hobby.
Incorrect: Working at full speed, fatigue overtakes many of the employees in the afternoon.
Correct: Working full speed, many of the employees become tired by noon.
Incorrect: To improve typing skills, practice is needed
Correct: To improve typing skills, I must practice
Incorrect: To evaluate the feasibility of the year-long project on oil refinery reform procedures, the
centralized plan will be compared with the present system of dispersing facility sites.
Correct: To evaluate the feasibility of the year-long project on oil refinery reform procedures, the
committee will compare the new plan with older versions.
Exercise on Gerunds:
Underline the gerunds or gerund phrases in the following sentences and label how they
function in the sentence
1. Swimming keeps me in shape.
2. Marked by degrees of suspicion, I could not escape the scrutiny of the police officers.
3. Telling your father was a mistake.
4. The college recommends sending applications early.
5. He won the game by scoring during the overtime period.
6. Her most important achievement was winning the national championship.
7. To write a film like Lost in Translation suggests a deep existential crisis.
Exercise in participials: Choose the correct sentence and explain your choice
1.
2.
Rushing to finish the paper, Bob’s printer broke
Rushing to finish the paper, I broke the printer
1.
2.
The game, exciting the fans, when into extra innings.
The game went into extra innings, exciting the fans.
Exercise in infinitives
1. To win the game, cheating is necessary
2. To win the game, the Wildcats must cheat.
Exercise in gerunds
1. Watering my neighbor’s garden, snakes appeared in the grass.
2. Watering my neighbor’s garden, I found snakes in the grass.
Sample paragraph: revise this paragraph and focus on the verbal phrases
Excited to enjoy a popcorn snack, Back to the Future appeared last night at the Kentucky
Theatre Summer Classic Film Series. To watch a film directed by Steven Speilberg,
relinquishing moral sensibilities is required. The film depicts the fantasies of mid-1980s U.S.
culture and economy, hobbled by the trappings of its own opulence. It depicts the attempt of one
disaffected scientist to travel back in time, working against the greed and destruction of the
present era, to make right the wrongs of rampant greed. We see this in the film’s opening scene,
running and evading terrorists from Lebanon who are trying to recover their stolen uranium.
Worked up into a fit of rage, this film made me regret the choices our consumer culture has
made.