Verbal Infinitives and Participles Tegan Hunter
Verbal The term verbal indicates that a participle is based on a verb and therefore expresses action or a state of being. (Purdue OWL)
Participles A participle is a verb that is used as an adjective and most often ends in -ing or -ed. Participles modify nouns or pronouns -ing indicates the present participle -ed indicates the past participle.
Examples Claire smiled at the jumping horse. Excited, Sam opened the new Bassoon book. Smiling, Katie admired the huge elephant. Laughing, Elora knew that Tegan would never forget how to spell ‘opinion’ again. The freezing Shamrock Shake caused Marissa to shiver.
Infinitives An infinitive is a verbal consisting of the word to plus a verb (in its simplest "stem" form). Can function as a noun, adjective, or adverb. The infinitive may function as a subject, direct object, subject complement, adjective, or adverb in a sentence.
Examples To wait seemed foolish when Elizabeth could read the entire book. Melanie wanted to go on the Six Flags trip. Aarons goal is to play the trombone for Marching Illini . Stephanie wants to dance ballet.
Quiz 1. The thief arrested for the robbery shot at the security guard. b. participle c. infinitive 2. Jamal's confusing message did nothing to solve the mystery. b. participle c. infinitive 3. The show offers everyone a chance to be a millionaire. b. participle c. infinitive
Quiz Billy refused to accept the idea that his birthday cake was gone. b. participle c. infinitive The completed meal was so beautiful that we hesitated to eat it. b. participle c. infinitive