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Verbals
Definition
• A verbal is not a verb; it is a former verb doing
a different job. Gerunds, participles, and
infinitives are the three kinds of verbals.
Gerunds are nouns made of verbs; participles
are adjectives made of verbs; and infinitives
are nouns or modifiers made of verbs. In
other words, when we change a verb into a
different part of speech, we call it a verbal.
Verbals are nouns, adjectives, or adverbs
made out of verbs.
A verbal can be a single word, or it can join other words to
become a verbal phrase.
Example: Take was thinking, saw off the helping verb was
and now we can use the verb thinking as a noun.
Thinking is my favorite activity.
In that sentence, thinking is a gerund. It is not yet a verbal
phrase, but we can add words to it to make it one.
Rapidly thinking thoughts is my favorite activity.
Brushing his face was bigfoot’s hobby.
Do we have a verbal phrase?
What is the subject of the sentence?
Which sentence is correct?
Meeting you and me was his purpose.
Meeting you and I was his purpose.
REMEMBER: A subject is a subject and an
object is an object.
Remember
• A phrase acts as a single part of speech; this
means that it can also be a single part of
sentence.
• The phrase could be the subject. It might be
the direct object. We have to think of
phrases as a group of words acting as one
word.