Identifying Verbals

When is a verb not a verb? When it's a verbal--that is, the form of a verb that functions as another part of speech. There are three types of verbals in English:

• participles
• gerunds
• infinitives

As we'll see, each of these verbals is often part of a phrase, which includes related modifiers, objects, or complements.

Participles

A participle is a verb form used as an adjective to modify nouns and pronouns. The following sentence contains both a present and a past participle:

The children, crying and exhausted, were guided out of the collapsed mine.

Crying is a present participle, formed by adding -ing to the present form of the verb (cry). Exhausted is a past participle, formed by adding -ed to the present form of the verb (exhaust). Both participles modify the subject, children.

All present participles end in -ing. The past participles of all regular verbs end in -ed. However, irregular verbs have various past participle endings (for instance, thrown. ridden, built, and gone).

A participial phrase is made up of a participle and its modifiers. A participle may be followed by an object, an adverb, a prepositional phrase, an adverb clause, or any combination of these. In this sentence, for example, the participial phrase consists of a present participle (holding), an object (the torch), and an adverb (steadily):

Holding the torch steadily, Merdine approached the monster.

In the next sentence, the participial phrase consists of a present participle (making), an object (a great ring), and a prepositional phrase (of white light):

Merdine waved the torch over her head, making a great ring of white light.

For more information about using participles and participial phrases, visit Creating and Arranging Participial Phrases.

Gerunds

A gerund is a verb form ending in -ing that functions in a sentence as a noun. Although both the present participle and the gerund are formed by adding -ing to a verb, note that the participle does the job of an adjective while the gerund does the job of a noun. Compare the verbals in these two sentences:

The children, crying and exhausted, were guided out of the collapsed mine.
Crying will not get you anywhere.

Whereas the participle crying modifies the subject in the first sentence, the gerund Crying is the subject of the second sentence.

Infinitives

An infinitive is a verb form--often preceded by the particle to--that can function as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. Compare the verbals in these two sentences:

I don't like crying in public unless I'm getting paid for it.
I don't like to cry in public unless I'm getting paid for it.

In the first sentence, the gerund crying serves as the direct object. In the second sentence, the infinitive to cry performs the same function.

Exercise: Identifying Verbals

For each of the following sentences, decide if the word or phrase in bold is a participle, a gerund, or an infinitive. When you are done, compare your responses with the answers at the end of the exercise.

1. The wine urges me on, the bewitching wine, which sets even a wise man to singing and to laughing gently and rouses him up to dance and brings forth words which were better unspoken. (Homer)


2. The wine urges me on, the bewitching wine, which sets even a wise man to singing and to laughing gently and rouses him up to dance and brings forth words which were better unspoken. (Homer)


3. There are many ways of breaking a heart. Stories were full of hearts broken by love, but what really broke a heart was taking away its dream--whatever that dream might be. (Pearl Buck)


4. There are many ways of breaking a heart. Stories were full of hearts broken by love, but what really broke a heart was taking away its dream--whatever that dream might be. (Pearl Buck)


5. Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city. (George Burns)


6. Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city. (George Burns)


7. I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying. (Woody Allen)


8. I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying. (Woody Allen)


9. It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail. (Gore Vidal)


10. Succeeding is not enough. Others must fail.

Answers:
1. gerunds; 2. infinitive; 3. gerund; 4. (past) participle; 5. (present) participles; 6. gerund; 7. infinitives; 8. gerund; 9. infinitive; 10. gerund.