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Verbals
This little lecture is about verbals in English. Verbals are words that are formed
from verbs, but are used in some other way. Some verbals are used as
adjectives, while other verbals are used as nouns or adverbs.
There are three types of verbals – participles, gerunds, and infinitives.
Participles:
There are present, past, and perfect participles. The present
participles are perhaps easiest to understand and therefore I will concentrate on
these. I will give two examples of the past and perfect participles at the end of
this section. The present participle is an adjective that is formed by using a
verb and adding –ing. Here are some examples,
The smiling baby looked at me. (smile + ing = usual adjective modifying
“baby”)
The basketball game was exciting. (excite + ing = predicate adjective modifying
“game”)
Laughing at the joke, the man turned and walked away. (laugh + ing =
adjective phrase modifying “man”)
Note the location of the participles above. The first is directly in front of the
noun it modifies. The second is a predicate adjective coming after the linking
verb “was”. The third has the participle as a phrase in front of the noun it
modifies. Present participles always act as adjectives.
Gerunds:
Gerunds are the easiest verbals to understand. They always
end in –ing and act as nouns. Start with a verb, add
noun --- that is the rule. Here are some examples.
–ing and then use as a
Reading is an excellent hobby. (read + ing = noun used as subject)
I enjoy reading books. (read + ing = noun used as direct object)
She scolded him for reading her diary. (read + ing = noun used as object of
proposition “for”)
Infinitives:
The most complicated of the verbals are the infinitives. An
infinitive is almost always preceded by the word “to”.
Infinitives can act as
nouns, adjective and adverbs. They are very versatile. Thus, infinitives are
important because they can be used many times in many ways. Here are some
examples.
Infinitive as Noun:
To hear those words broke my heart. (to+hear = noun as subject)
I want to learn English. (to + learn = noun as direct object)
His ambition was to learn English. ( to + learn = predicate noun)
Infinitive as Adjective:
The will to succeed is very important.
( to + succeed = adjective modifying “will” )
The school provided a means to go to the conference
(to + go = adjective modifying “means” )
There were cups to use in the teachers’ lounge.
(to + use = adjective modifying “cups” )
Infinitive as Adverb:
I stopped to rest. (to + rest = adverb modifying “stopped”)
The students attended class to learn. (to+learn = adverb modifying “attended”)
Sometimes infinitives act as adverbs modifying adjectives
The students were anxious to leave class. (to + leave = adverb modifying anxious)
I would be glad to help you. (to + help = adverb modifying glad)