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1 Gerund, Infinitive and Participle
1.1 Gerund:
1.2 Participle
1.3 Infinitive:

Gerund, Infinitive and Participle

 Gerund:

Gerund is usually used to describe actions which are real ,constant and completed in sense.

How to identify Gerund?

When verb + ing acts as a noun, it is a gerund. Gerund can be used in many ways-

Subject of the sentence

  • Reading is a good habit.

If we ask what is a good habit. We get ‘Reading’ as an answer. Here Reading is the subject of the sentence.

Object of transitive verb

  • I like reading.

If we ask what do we like, we get ‘reading’ as an answer. Here reading is the object of the transitive verb.

Complement of the subject

  • What I like is improving myself.

Here ‘improving’ adds more information about the subject. So gerund acts as a complement of the subject ‘I’.

Object of preposition

  • I am busy in solving sums.

  • After learning for an hour, he went to watch T.V.

Here gerund is placed after a preposition ,and gerund works as an object of preposition. 

Object of a possessive

  • I hate his torturing her.

Here gerund works as an object of a possessive.

 

  • When ‘Being’ or ‘Having’ do not follow ‘be verb’ and it is used before a noun, it becomes gerund. Again, when ‘Being’ or ‘Having’ is used before the past participle form of verb, it becomes participle.

  • There is a slight difference between ‘being’ and ‘Having’. ‘Being’ tells about a state , but ‘having’ tells about your possession.

Examples:

  • Being a salesman is not easy.

  • Having a pen I could write.

Participle

 

  • When ‘verb+ ing’ or ‘verb+ ed/en’ works as an adjective, it is called participle. Participle can replace adjective clause or adverb clause.

  • There are three types of participle-

  1. Past Participle: Verb+ ed/en

  2. Present Participle: Verb+ ing

  3. Perfect Participle: Having +third form of Verb/Having +been+ third form of Verb/Being +third form of Verb

Infinitive: 

Infinitive describes unreal actions or an action which is about to happen in the future.

Let’s know about infinitives-

To +Verb=Infinitive

Example:

I want to play now.

Here We use the verb ‘play’ after ‘to’, so it is infinitive and works as an infinitive .