Verbals Notes/Review
What is a verbal? It is a verb for that functions, or works, in a sentence as a noun,
an adjective, or an adverb. There are three types of verbals – participles, gerunds
and infinitives.
All three can be expanded into phrases.
Participles end in –ing or –ed or sometimes irregular verb endings. They work as
adjectives. They modify or describe nouns or pronouns.
Ex. No one would eat the burned toast. (Notice the participle is underlined and ends
in –ed; it modifies the noun toast. It tells the reader what kind of toast.)
Ex. The park ranger warned us to watch out for falling rocks. (Notice the participle
is underlined and ends in –ing; it modifies the noun rocks. It tells the reader which
rocks.)
Ex. The fallen tree blocked the winding road. (Notice the participles are underlined
and one has an irregular ending and the other ends in –ing. Both participles indicate
what kind of tree and what kind of road.)
Participial phrases contain the participle plus any complements or modifiers. They can
be placed in various positions in the sentence.
Ex. We watched the best teams playing baseball. (Notice the participial phrase
modifies teams.)
Other examples are as follows:
The badly defeated team accepted its fate with grace. (Notice the adverb, badly,
modifying defeated is included in the phrase; remember verbals are verb forms and
can have the same modifiers a verb would have. Also, the participle ends in –ed and
tells which team accepted its fate with grace.)
The victors, elated by the victory, shook hands with the losers. (See that participial
phrases can be set a part with commas. Also, see if you notice the ending of
elated).
Throwing their hats into the air, the fans of the victorious team lets out a great
roar. Participial phrases at the beginning of a sentence are usually followed by a
comma. Commas are used as signals.
Gerund: a verb form that ends in – ing and is used in the way a noun is used in a
sentence.
Ex. Shopping is something I enjoy. (subject)
My son likes hiking. (direct object)
Tony gives cooking his best effort. (indirect object)
How much enthusiasm do you feel for writing? (object of a preposition)
Kristi’s favorite pastime is painting. (predicate nominative)
My hobbies, reading and traveling, are activities I wish I more time to do.
(appositives)
Gerund phrases are gerunds plus any complements or modifiers.
Ex. Running a marathon is no easy task.
*Remember gerunds always end in – ing; they can work in any position in a sentence a
noun works.
Infinitive: a verb for that is usually preceded by the word to; it can be a noun,
adjective or adverb.
Ex. To jump, to run, to think, to laugh, to sing, to imagine, to create, to challenge,
to write
Ex. After the accident, the patient’s goal was to walk.
An infinitive phrase contains an infinitive plus any complements and modifiers.
Ex. We decide to travel across the country by train. (Notice the prepositional
phrases tell where and how we plan to travel.)
Be careful “to + a noun or pronoun” is a prepositional phrase not an infinitive phrase.