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Humanities › English
The Difference Between Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives
Verbals in English Grammar: Definitions, Examples, and Exercises
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By
Richard Nordquist
Updated July 17, 2019
A verbal is a word derived from a verb that functions in a sentence as a noun or modifier rather than as a verb. In other words, a verbal is a verb that acts like a different part of speech.
Verbals include infinitives, gerunds (also known as -ing forms), and participles (also known as -ing forms and -en forms). A word group based on a verbal is called a verbal phrase. Each of these verbals is often part of a phrase, which includes related modifiers, objects, and complements.
What Are Participles?
A participle is a verb form that can be used as an adjective to modify nouns and pronouns, as in this example:
The children, crying and exhausted, were guided out of the collapsed house.
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. Irregular verbs, however, 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. For example, in the following sentence the participial phrase consists of a present participle (holding), an object (the torch), and an adverb (steadily):
. What were you doing (Past Continuous) when I called (Past Simple) you?
2. They were cleaning (Past Continuous)the windows when it started (Past Simple) to rain.
3. Nora was riding (Past Continuous) her bicycle when she noticed (Past Simple)a nice kitten.
4. While I was doing (Past Continuous)my homework the telephone rang (Past Simple).
5. While we were washing (Past Continuous)the floor we found (Past Simple)a key.
6. He heard (Past Simple)a loud noise when he was sitting (Past Continuous)in the garden.
7. Linda was typing (Past Continuous)a letter when her boss arrived (Past Simple).
8. Melany was cooking(Past Continuous) dinner when her husband came (Past Simple) home.
9. When he was driving (Past Continuous)to work, he remembered (Past Simple)that his briefcase was (Past Simple) still at home.
10. Kelly was looking (Past Continuous) out of the window when she saw Mike.