Lesson 238 - Parts of the Sentence - Verbals

A verbal is a verb form used as some other part of speech. There are three kinds of verbals: gerunds, participles and infinitives.

A gerund always ends in ing and is used as a noun. Eating is fun.

A participle is used as an adjective and ends in various ways. A present participle always ends with ing as does the gerund, but remember that it is an adjective. A past participle ends with ed, n, or irregularly. Examples: played, broken, brought, sung, seeing, having seen, being seen, seen, having been seen.

An infinitive is to plus a verb form. It can be a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. Examples: to be, to see, to be seen, to be eaten.

Instructions: Find the gerunds, gerund phrases, participles, participial phrases, infinitives or infinitive phrases in these sentences, tell what kind of verbal they are, and how they are used.

1. Blaming others is not being honest with oneself.

2. We do not plan to change the rules.

3. Forgetting his promise, Jeff returned home late.

4. My dog is too old to learn new tricks.

5. One way to improve is regular practice.

--For answers scroll down.

Answers:

1. blaming others is a gerund phrase used as the subject

2. to change the rules is a noun infinitive phrase used as the direct object

3. forgetting his promise is a participial phrase modifying the subject Jeff

4. to learn new tricks is an adverb infinitive phrase modifying the predicate adjective old

5. to improve is an adjective infinitive modifying the subject way

Next Lesson

For your convenience, all of our lessons are available on our website in our lesson archive at http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.html. Our lessons are also available to purchase in an eBook and a Workbook format.
from Daily Grammar Lessons Blog
http://dailygrammarlessons.blogspot.com/2017/08/lesson-238-parts-of-sentence-verbals.html