# English in Use/Verbals

## Overview

## Infinitives

See the verbs infinitive mood.

### A short syntax

An infinitive can be joined to every part of speech: a noun, as \"Obtain
felicity,\" an adjective, as \"Desirous to speak,\" a pronoun, as \"What
to accuse,\" a finite verb, as \"Come to seek,\" an infinitive, as \"To
wait to consider,\" a participle, as \"Bent to unhoard,\" an adverb, as
\"How to act,\" a conjunction, as \"More than praise it,\" a
preposition, as \"About to write,\" and an interjection, as \"O to
forget her!\".

An infinitive may stand for the following: a supplement to verb, as \"Go
to seek,\" purpose, as \"Labour not to be rich,\" an object of passion,
as \"He loves to ride,\" a cause of passion, as \"I rejoice to hear
it,\" the subject of proposition, as \"To steal is sinful,\" the object
of proposition, as \"To enjoy is to obey,\" a coming event, as \"Things
to come,\" a necessary event, as \"It is to be remembered,\" something
previously suggested, as \"The gift to know it,\" and measure, as
\"Enough to show.\"

## Gerunds

Gerunds are nouns built from a verb with an *ing* suffix. They can be
used as the subject of a sentence, an object, or an object of
preposition. They can also be used to complement a subject. Often,
gerunds exist side-by-side with nouns that come from the same root but
the gerund and the common noun have different shades of meaning.
Examples: breath and *breathing*, knowledge and *knowing*. Yet,
distinguishing between a gerund, and a verb can sometimes cause trouble.
For example:

-   \"*Swimming* has to be the best sport ever.\" (*Swimming* is
    gerund.)
-   \"I went swimming today.\" (Not a Gerund, because it is not an
    idea.)

Examples of gerunds as the subject of a sentence are:

-   \"*Backpacking* is a rewarding pastime.\"
-   \"*Stretching* can loosen up muscles.\"
-   \"No *smoking*.\" (I.e., no smoking is allowed / you may not smoke
    here.)

As an object:

-   \"We all love to go *bowling* on the weekend.\"
-   \"He loves *eating* chips.\"

An object of preposition:

-   \"They complained of *hearing* strange sounds from the next cabin.\"
-   \"They sang about *being* eaten by bears to allay their fears.\"

And as a complement to a subject:

-   \"One of the most dangerous things to do on the lake is
    *ice-skating*.\"

## Participles

**Participles** are forms of verbs which are used as adjectives. A
participle is a word derived from a verb, participating the properties
of a verb, and of an adjective or a noun; and is generally formed by
adding *ing*, *d*, or *ed*, to the verb: thus, from the verb rule, are
formed three participles, two simple and one compound; as, *ruling,
ruled, having ruled*.

English verbs, not defective, have severally three participles; which
have been very variously denominated, perhaps the most accurately thus:
the present, the past, and the past perfect. Or, as their order is
undisputed, they may be conveniently called the first, the second, and
the third.

The **present participle** is that which ends commonly in *ing*, and
implies a continuance of the being, action, or passion: as, *being,
acting, ruling, loving, defending, terminating*. Therefore:

-   *Talk* becomes *talking*
-   *Jump* becomes *jumping*
-   *Open* becomes *opening*
-   *See* becomes *seeing*

The present participle, when simple, is always formed by adding *ing*,
or it is formed by prefixing being to some other simple participle; as,
*being reading, being read, being completed*.

The **past participle** is that which ends commonly in *ed* or *en*, and
implies a completion of the being, action, or passion: as, *been, acted,
ruled, loved, defended, terminated*. Therefore:

-   *Talk* becomes *talked*
-   *Jump* becomes *jumped*
-   *Open* becomes *opened*
-   However, *See* becomes *seen*

The past participle is always simple, and is regularly formed by adding
*d* or *ed* to the radical verb: those verbs from which it is formed
otherwise, are either irregular or redundant.

The irregular verb *see* also did not have a regular past participle. As
with most irregular words, there is no good \"general rule\" which
applies, but often *ed* is replaced by \'en\'. More irregular verbs with
irregular past participles are:

-   *Be*, *been*
-   *Break*, *broken*
-   *Eat*, *eaten*
-   *Slide*, *slid*

The **past perfect participle** is that which takes the sign having, and
implies a previous completion of the being, action, or passion: as,
*having loved, having seen, having written; having been loved, having
been writing, having been written*.

The past perfect participle is always compound, and is formed by
prefixing having to the past participle, when the compound is double,
and having been to the past or the present participle, when the compound
is triple: as, having spoken, having been spoken, having been speaking.

### A short syntax

Participles relate to nouns or pronouns, as \"Reading Plato,\" except
the following cases: the preceding phrase, as \"To leave them, appearing
a duty,\" an abstract action or being, as \"To seem compelled, is
disagreeable,\" substitute for infinitive, as \"Afraid of trying,\" and
substitute for a noun, as \"This is talking.\"

## Examples

-   He is **talking** to her.
-   They are **jumping** into the pool.
-   We had **eaten** the pie.

Each of these cases has a verb acting as an adjective, describing the
subject.

In case you were wondering, *had* plus a past participle is called a
**past perfect**, or in the United Kingdom, the **pluperfect**.

## References

-   A part of the text in this article, was taken from the public domain
    English grammar \"The Grammar of English
    Grammars\" by Goold Brown,
    1851.
