Friday, May 16, 2008

Verbals: Notes


Verbals

Verbal – word that is formed from a verb but is used as an adjective, a noun, or an adverb.

Participle – adjective
Gerund – noun
Infinitive – adverb

Participle – verb form used as an adjective.

Use the present participle (-ing) and past participle (-ed) to form verbals.

Climb climbing climbed

Since participles act as adjectives they ALWAYS modify NOUNS!

A participle can come before or after the noun or pronoun it modifies.

Gerunds – the present participle of a verb (-ing) used as a noun.

- A gerund can be a subject, direct object, object of preposition and a predicate noun.

ALWAYS locate the simple subject and simple predicate in a sentence to determine if a the word is a gerund.

Running is both a fun and healthful exercise. (Running is the subject in this sentence therefore it is a gerund)

Infinitives – made up of the word to and the base form of the verb.

Infinitives can be used as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.

Be careful not to confuse infinitives with prepositional phrases that begin with to.

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