The Difference Between Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives

Woman waving a torch above her head.

Dr. Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks.

Updated on 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 endingsfor 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):

Holding the torch steadily, Jenny approached the monster.

In the next sentence, the participial phrase consists of a present participle (making), an object (a great ring), and a prepositional phrase (of white light):

Jenny waved the torch over her head, making a great ring of white light.

What Are Gerunds?

A gerund is a verb form ending in -ing that functions in a sentence as a noun. Although both the present participle and the gerund are formed by adding -ing to a verb, the participle does the job of an adjective while the gerund does the job of a noun. Compare the verbals in these two sentences:

Whereas the participle crying modifies the subject in the first sentence, the gerund crying is the subject of the second sentence.

What Are Infinitives?

An infinitive is a verb form—often preceded by the particle to—that can function as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. Compare the verbals in these two sentences:

In the first sentence, the gerund crying serves as the direct object. In the second sentence, the infinitive to cry performs the same function.

Exercise: Identifying Verbals

For each of the following sentences, decide if the word or phrase in italics is a participle, a gerund, or an infinitive.

  1. The children's singing and laughing woke me up.
  2. Jenny likes to dance in the rain.
  3. There are many ways of breaking a heart.
  4. A broken heart will mend over time.
  5. "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city." — George Burns
  6. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner.
  7. "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying." — Woody Allen
  8. "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying." — Woody Allen
  9. "It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail." —Gore Vidal
  10. Succeeding is not enough. Others must fail.

Answer Key

  1. Gerund: In this sentence, the words singing and laughing function as nouns, making them gerunds.
  2. Infinitive: You can tell that to dance is an infinitive because "to" precedes the word "dance."
  3. Gerund: The verbal breaking serves as a noun. It is also the object of the preposition of.
  4. (Past) participle: Implied in this sentence is the verbal phrase, that has been preceding the verbal, broken, making it a past participle, which indicates something that happened and was completed in the past.
  5. (Present) participles: Loving and caring are actions that are occurring in the present, making these verbals present participles.
  6. Gerund: Laughing is a noun making it a gerund.
  7. Infinitives: The verbal to achieve, in both cases, is an infinitive because it's a verb preceded by to.
  8. Gerund: Dying is used as a noun in the sentence.
  9. Infinitive: To succeed is an infinitive—a verb preceded by to.
  10. Gerund: Succeeding is a noun here; indeed, it is the subject of the first sentence, making it a gerund.
Cite this Article Your Citation

Nordquist, Richard. "The Difference Between Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/identifying-verbals-in-english-grammar-1689699. Nordquist, Richard. (2023, April 5). The Difference Between Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/identifying-verbals-in-english-grammar-1689699 Nordquist, Richard. "The Difference Between Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/identifying-verbals-in-english-grammar-1689699 (accessed September 4, 2024).

copy citation How to Use a Nonfinite Verb in English Gerunds: Special Verbs That Are Also Nouns What Is a Verbal? Simple Subject in Grammar Your Guide to Understanding the Present Participle Base Verbs in English Grammar What Is the Past Subjunctive? Understanding Participial Phrases Definition and Examples of -ing Forms in Grammar An Introduction to Present Participles and Gerunds Understanding the 'to'-Infinitive in English Grammar What Are Auxiliary Verbs? Understanding Present and Past Participles What is the Zero (or Bare) Infinitive? What Is a Dangling Modifier? Definition and Examples of Infinitive Verbs ThoughtCo is part of the Dotdash Meredith publishing family.

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