Download All About Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives

All About Gerunds, Participles,
and Infinitives
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The words of the world want to make sentences.
—Gaston Bachelard
• gerunds: nouns
• participles: adjectives
• infinitives: nouns, adjectives, and adverbs
Introduction
Begin a mini-lesson by reading aloud the Bachelard quote at the top of the page. Explain that
some of those “words of the world” are gerunds, participles, and infinitives. Write a short
definition of each and an example, such as the following, on the board:
• A gerund is formed by adding –ing to a verb. It always acts as a noun:
Dancing to music makes me happy.
• A
participle is formed by adding –ing or –ed to a verb. It always acts as an adjective:
The dancing girl turned up the volume on her overloaded iPod.
• A
n infinitive is formed by adding to in front of the verb. It can act as a
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noun, adjective, or adverb:
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To dance is my dream. (noun: subject)
I have a date to dance on Saturday. (adjective modifying date)
I went to the gym to dance. (adverb modifying went)
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: smiling,
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are used
)(
as noun
s.
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in the pass
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Smiling for
too long
makes my
He was sent
face hurt
.
to the princ
ipal’s offic
Terrence
e for goin
was upse
g to the
t by our
gym with
leaving the
out perm
party early
ission.
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.
verb + –ing
or –ed: grinn
ing, grinn
Present parti
ed; teari
ciples are
ng, torn
formed by
Past parti
adding –ing
ciples are
to the end
formed by
of the verb
adding –ed
have irreg
.
ular form
to the end
s: bringing,
of the verb
Participle
brought;
. However,
s are used
seeing, saw.
some past
as adjective
participle
s.
s
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The grinn
ing boy mad
e me smile
A dusty lace
, too. (pres
curtain, tatte
ent parti
ciple)
red and torn
, swung
in the lazy
breeze. (pas
<aÐa\g\iXf
to + verb
: to smile,
to break,
to be
s are used
as nouns,
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rbs.
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Infinitive
Apply
of three
hours ever
g all your
y day. (nou
teeth is the
n)
best way
genuinely
to smile
, a person
widely. (adje
must be
ctive)
truly happ
y. (adverb)
)+
Distribute a copy of the Who We Are reproducible on page 52 to each
student. Use it with students to document all the gerunds, participles, and infinitives in the
model passage. Encourage them to record the gerunds, participles, and infinitives they see
in other print sources. You also may want to refer them back to this reproducible in the next
lesson, on phrases and clauses, pages 47–52.
Grab ‘Em!,
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Activities
That Really
To smile
is to smil
Grammar
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Grades 6–8
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41
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Gerunds
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Grab ‘Em!,
Distribute copies of the passage “Wrong Side of the Bed” on page 43 to
students. Allow time for them to read the passage on their own, or ask them to
follow along as you read it aloud. Use the teaching chart on page 42 to discuss
how the writer uses gerunds, participles, and infinitives in the passage.
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Activities
(Also see the lesson on phrases and clauses, pages 47–52.)
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Waking up
on the wron
1
g side of
see, my bed
the bed sent
sits tight
me swim
in a corn
ming in spac
er of my
and so does
bedroom
e—literal
the right
ly. Really!
. The head2
side. I wok
You
of the bed
through
e up on the
butts up
my bedroom
right side
against a
wall and
of the bed,
wall
into an alter
ounce gupp
which mea
nate univ
y in a huge
ns I wen
erse. Sudd
t right
fish tank
enly, I felt
sink. Look
. My arms
as weightles
ing down,
and feet
began to
I realized
s as a two4
move invo
that I wasn
Then I reali
luntarily
’t treading
3
zed that
as I bega
water—I
I was drift
n to
4
was tread
Saturn. I
ing past
ing air!
grabbed
the hazy
one of the
rings of
4
rings and
figure out
held on until
how to quic
I could
kly get hom
but I was
e. A com
able to reac 5
et shot past
h out and
me,
comet drop
grab its tail.
ped me off
The spee
ding
500,000,
left only
000 mile
2,569,83
s from hom
8,008 mile
e. That
s to go!
I was too
close to an
undiscov
into its orbit
ered plan
et and got
. Burned
by the sun
pulled
planet for
and then
bitten by
hours and 6
the cold,
hours. Fortu
I spun arou
me out of
nately, a
6
nd that hot
shuttle ship
the planet’s
and cold
from anot
orbit. Wat
sight mad
her galaxy
ching Earth
e me hom
stopped
from the
esick. I mad 7
and pluc
shuttle’s
ked
window
Don’t ask
e a whispere
was fun,
me to tell
d wish: I
but then
you how
wish I were
the
. I wonder
home in
how muc
bed. Then
h money
I was!
I owe for
that shut
tle
ride? . . .
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Sarah Glassco
Grammar
Grammar Activities That Really Grab 'Em © Sarah Glasscock, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Gerunds, participles, and infinitives are formed from verbs, but each
performs a different function in a sentence. This mini-lesson focuses
on the following:
Gerunds
To create a gerund, add –ing to the end of a verb.
KEY POINTS
• A gerund is used as a noun.
• Students may find it difficult to tell the
difference between a gerund and a present
participle. Emphasize that to identify a gerund
correctly they will have to understand which
part of speech the word is.
TEACHING WITH THE MODEL PASSAGE
1 To find the subject of this sentence, ask
yourself, “What sent the writer swimming in
space?” The complete subject is Waking up on the
wrong side of the bed. Since Waking is used as a
noun, it’s a gerund.
7 Notice that there is no punctuation setting off
the gerund from the rest of the sentence. Gerunds
don’t require any punctuation.
To create a present participle, add –ing to the end of a verb. To create a past participle, add
–ed to the end of a verb.
KEY POINTS
• A participle is used as an adjective.
TEACHING WITH THE MODEL PASSAGE
2 Swimming is a present participle because it acts
as an adjective modifying me.
• A present participle ends in –ing. A past
participle usually ends in –ed.
• Some past participles have irregular forms: the
bent or broken branch.
4 Both uses of treading are verbs; they go with the
verb was. Looking is a present participle.
6 Burned by the sun and bitten by the cold are
adjectives describing the writer. Both are past
participles, and bitten is an irregular participle.
Infinitives
To create an infinitive, add to before a verb.
KEY POINTS
• An infinitive can be used as a noun, adjective,
or adverb.
TEACHING WITH THE MODEL PASSAGE
3 Some verbs, such as begin, decide, agree, and
want, are followed by infinitives.
• Students may confuse infinitives with
prepositional phrases. Remind them that an
infinitive consists of to plus a verb, while a
prepositional phrase consists of to plus a noun
or a pronoun.
5 This sentence contains a split infinitive—the
adverb quickly splits the infinitive to get.
• It’s really okay to split an infinitive. This myth
got started because a lot of our language comes
from Latin words. You can’t split infinitives in
Latin because in Latin the infinitive is simply
the verb without to before it.
42
Grammar Activities That Really Grab 'Em © Sarah Glasscock, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Participles
MODEL PASSAGE
Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives
Wrong Side of the Bed
Waking up on the wrong side of the bed sent me swimming in space—literally. Really! You
2
1
see, my bed sits tight in a corner of my bedroom. The head of the bed butts up against a wall
and so does the right side. I woke up on the right side of the bed, which means I went right
Grammar Activities That Really Grab 'Em © Sarah Glasscock, Scholastic Teaching Resources
through my bedroom wall and into an alternate universe. Suddenly, I felt as weightless as a twoounce guppy in a huge fish tank. My arms and feet began to move involuntarily as I began to
3
sink. Looking down, I realized that I wasn’t treading water—I was treading air!
4
4
Then I realized that I was drifting past the hazy rings of
4
Saturn. I grabbed one of the rings and held on until I could
figure out how to quickly get home. A comet shot past me,
5
but I was able to reach out and grab its tail. The speeding
comet dropped me off 500,000,000 miles from home. That
left only 2,569,838,008 miles to go!
I was too close to an undiscovered planet and got pulled
into its orbit. Burned by the sun and then bitten by the cold, I spun around that hot and cold
6
6
planet for hours and hours. Fortunately, a shuttle ship from another galaxy stopped and plucked
me out of the planet’s orbit. Watching Earth from the shuttle’s window was fun, but then the
7
sight made me homesick. I made a whispered wish: I wish I were home in bed. Then I was!
Don’t ask me to tell you how. I wonder how much money I owe for that shuttle ride? . . .
In this passage, you’ll explore the following:
• gerunds
• participles
• infinitives
43
WRITING PROMPTS
Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives
Teachers: Duplicate these prompts on sturdy paper and then cut them apart. You may also write the prompts on the board or display them onscreen.
$- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ----------------------------------------------- - - - - - - Name _______________________________________________________________ Date _______________
Write! What is your least favorite chore or job to do around the
house? Explain why you dislike doing this chore so much. Make
readers really feel how much you dislike it.
With the Rest of the Class: Exchange your writing with a partner.
Wr ite yo ur
full resp on se
on a sepa ra te
sh eet of pa per.
After reading each other’s work, compare and contrast the chores
and your response to them. Then talk about how you used gerunds,
participles, and/or infinitives in your writing.
$- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ----------------------------------------------- - - - - - - Name _______________________________________________________________ Date _______________
The Three Faces of . . .
Write! Read the passage “Wrong Side of the Bed” again.
Think about the elements that go into writing a fantasy.
Then write your own fantasy passage. Before you begin writing,
think of a verb. In your passage include three forms of that verb—
Wr ite yo ur
full resp on se
on a sepa ra te
sh eet of pa per.
gerund, participle, and infinitive. Read over your work to make sure
you’ve used all three forms of the verb, and that you’ve used each
one correctly.
With the Rest of the Class: Exchange passages with a partner. See if you can identify which
verb he or she included and find all its forms.
44
Grammar Activities That Really Grab 'Em © Sarah Glasscock, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Don’t Make Me Do That!
Activities: Gerunds, Participles, And Infinitives
What Did Shakespeare Mean?
Grammar Activities That Really Grab 'Em © Sarah Glasscock, Scholastic Teaching Resources
The title character in Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, says the following:
To be or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream. . . .
Write Hamlet’s soliloquy on the board or make copies for the group. Have members take turns
reading it aloud. What do they think Hamlet means? Guide them in a rewrite of his speech
using modern-day language.
With the Class: As a class, talk about Shakespeare’s use of infinitives. How do the infinitives
help the rhythm and flow of the speech? How did groups incorporate infinitives into their
revision?
Participle Poetry
Have students think about a noun to write a poem about. It could be something as
concrete as leaf or as abstract as freedom. The title of the poem is the noun selected.
Challenge pairs to write the poem using only participles to describe the noun.
With the Class: After pairs practice, ask them to perform a choral reading of their poem for the
class and then discuss how they created their poem.
Is “to” Your BFF? Does “–ing” Follow You Around?
Play a grammar game featuring gerunds, participles, and infinitives. Here are
the rules: Three people are contestants and the rest of the class is the audience.
The teacher assigns the gerund, participle, or infinitive form of the same verb
to each contestant, for example: Contestant 1—irritating (gerund), Contestant 2—irritating
(present participle), Contestant 3—to irritate. Then the teacher challenges the audience to ask
questions to identify one of the forms, for example: “Which contestant is a participle that means
‘annoying’”? The audience takes turns asking each contestant a question to find the answer—
without asking obvious questions such as “Are you a participle?”
With the Class: Discuss the following questions: Which was the easiest form to identify—gerunds,
participles, or infinitives? What made it difficult to identify irregular forms of participles? Which
questions helped you tell the difference between a gerund and a present participle?
45
ACTIVITY
Name _____________________________________________________________
Date _________________
Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives
Who We Are
Add examples of gerunds, participles, and infinitives you come across in the passage.
verb + –ing: smiling, going
Gerunds are used as nouns.
EXAMPLES:
Smiling for too long makes my face hurt.
He was sent to the principal’s office for going to the gym without permission.
Terrence was upset by our leaving the party early.
Participles
verb + –ing or –ed: grinning, grinned; tearing, torn
Present participles are formed by adding –ing to the end of the verb.
Past participles are formed by adding –ed to the end of the verb. However, some past participles
have irregular forms: bringing, brought; seeing, saw.
Participles are used as adjectives.
EXAMPLES:
The grinning boy made me smile, too. (present participle)
A dusty lace curtain, tattered and torn, swung in the lazy breeze. (past participle)
Infinitives
to + verb: to smile, to break, to be
Infinitives are used as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs.
EXAMPLES:
My goal is to smile for a total of three hours every day. (noun)
Displaying all your teeth is the best way to smile widely. (adjective)
To smile genuinely, a person must be truly happy. (adverb)
46
Grammar Activities That Really Grab 'Em © Sarah Glasscock, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Gerunds