What is a verbal? A verbal is a verb + a suffix that functions as a different part of speech. 3 types of verbals—  Participles  Gerunds  Infinitives

What is a Participle? A participle is a form of a verb that acts as an adjective.

There are two kinds of participles: Present Participles- End in –ing Examples include: going, playing, growing, telling, reading, swimming, camping, sweating Past Participles- End in –ed, -en, -t, -n Examples include: chosen, broken, worn, burnt, chiseled

Remember, it’s not a participle unless it is used as adjective. Ingredients of a participle: Verb + ending Must modify noun or pronoun (Because it is acting as an adjective.) *Remember, there are 2 types of participle– present & past. Let’s look at a few examples:

Examples of Present/Past Participles Present ParticiplesPast Participles A growing baby sleeps much of the day. The conquered territory was under Spanish control. Many people in New Mexico live in farming communities. Troubled, she asked for advice.

What is a gerund? A gerund is verbal formed by adding –ing to a verb. A gerund functions as a noun. It can be the subject of a sentence. Example: Spelunking is Calvin’s favorite hobby. *Don’t confuse it with a present participle which modifies a noun.

A gerund can also be the object of a preposition. Examples: Sarah completed the marathon at the urging of the crowd. Ashley wowed the audience by singing.

A gerund can be a direct object. Example: Ethan’s swim team finished practicing at 6:30 A.M. Finished what? Finished practicing. Action verb- question- the answer is the direct object.

Verb + ing = A verb, present participle, or a gerund? Verb Phrases (progressive verb with helper. Present Participles (Function as adjectives) The student was whining about the notes. The whining student got on my last nerve. Courtney and her friends are walking through the food court. The walking path led the way to the food court. Gerunds (Function as nouns) The student’s whining was driving her classmates crazy. Walking to the food court made her tired.

Infinitives- Verbals that can act as noun, adjective, or adverb An infinitive is made up of To + verb ~To swim ~To run ~To decide ~To understand

A few examples of infinitives: She decided to take her niece Claire along on the adventure. The underlined phrase is an infinitive with all of its modifiers, which makes it an infinitive phrase, She decided what? Action verb- question… That’s right the entire infinitive phrase is the direct object.

Another example of infinitive use To know her is to love her. This one is two-for-one. To know is an infinitive that acts as the subject of the sentence, so it must be acting as a noun. To love her is an infinitive phrase following a linking verb. It is renaming the subject, so it is a predicate noun. Yes, noun!