Andrew Martz

There are three types of verbals: Gerunds, Infinitives and Participles. Each are incredibly important not only to the English language, but to several other languages throughout the world. I was never taught how to effectively recognize these verbals in a sentence. Gerunds were taught but the lesson on them was brief. Therefore, I am interested in expanding my understanding of verbals and I'm sure that I will through this project.

Gerunds are verbals which are non-finite verbs which are used in a variety of languages excluding English such as Latin and Spanish. The English language relies heavily on gerunds because they are critical to forming clauses and effectively using prepositions. They are usually found as a verb within a clause and are identical in form to present participles. When a gerund is incorporated within a clause, the clause acts as a noun within the larger sentence. Gerunds often follow a preposition. A key principle of gerunds is that they end in "ing" and function as nouns. They express action or a state of being. It is a verb but it frequently takes a place in the sentence that a noun usually would. For example, gerunds are often used as a subject, direct object, subject complement or an object of a preposition. Gerunds and Gerund Phrases never require any punctuation and if punctuation is involved, chances are, the word is not a gerund.

A participle is a verbal that is used as an adjective and usually ends in "ed" or "ing". Like the gerund, the participle either expresses action or a state of being. They function as adjectives, therefore, they modify nouns or pronouns. Participles are key in participial phrases. Participial phrases consist of participles and the modifiers, pronouns and nouns that function as direct objects, indirect objects or complements that are being used to express a certain state of being. In order to prevent confusion when using participial phrases, the noun must be explicitly and clearly stated, and the participial phrase must be placed as close to the noun it modifies. Unlike Gerunds, punctuation is used regularly when dealing with participles. When a participial phrase begins the sentence, a comma should be used after the phrase. If it comes in the middle, the phrase should be set of by commas but only if the information in not essential to the meaning of the sentence. Finally, a comma is used when the phrase comes at the end of the sentence and is separated from the word that it modifies. Whenever a participial phrase's information is important to the sentence, no commas are to be used.

Infinitives are verbals that use the word "to" plus a verb. They can function as a noun, adjective, or adverb.The infinitive can also be used as a subject, direct object, subject complement, adjective, or adverb within a sentence. Infinitives are the most confusing of the verbals due to the difficulty it takes to recognize them. For example, prepositional phrases may begin with "to" just like the infinitive. They are distinguished by the fact that infinitives are the word "to" followed by a verb whereas prepositional phrases are followed by either a noun or a pronoun and its modifiers. Infinitives require punctuation only if they use an adverb at the beginning of the sentence.

It is clear that Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives each tie in to enrich the English language and make it more versatile. It is true that they are quite different from each other, but they are also the same in many ways.

Citation:

Brizee, Allen. "Verbals: Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives". The Owl at Purdue. 12/1/08 <http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/627/03/>.