Verbs (Participle/Gerund, Infinitive)

Sakshi Education

INFINITVES:
Infinitives are verb phrases composed of to + the main form of the verb.
e.g.

To give

To see

To be

To think

To grow

To encourage

To worry

RULES REGARDING INFINITIVES

Infinitives are used as the subject of sentences:
"To be or not to be" is the question asked by Shakespeare's Hamlet.
To ski well is the aim of many winter sport enthusiasts.
Infinitive verbs follow "how, when, why, and where" (question words not used in questions):
I know how to sew.
Infinitive forms are used after other verbs: want/need/like/love/try:
- I want to be alone.
- I like to travel during the summer.
- She needs to call her parents.
- They tried to give the money back.
- Birds must love to fly.
Infinitive forms are not used after the verbs: feel, see, hear, and smell:
For example, consider a bus and your perception of it: I saw the bus move. I heard the bus move. I felt the bus move. I smelled the bus move, (not "to move")
Do not use an infinitive after "enjoy."
I enjoy watching (not "to watch") sports on TV.
Do not use the infinitive after modal auxiliaries.
- I must try harder in math class, (not I must to try)
- He could make a mistake easily.
- I can sell you my car at a discount, (not I can to sell)
- They should not touch the blood barehanded.
- I will come by for you at nine o'clock.

INFINITIVE PHRASES:
These are simply instances in which an infinitive is in a phrase with other words that modify the action or state being expressed.
Like this:
The whole point of taking a road trip, as you know, is to drive leisurely.
The addition of the adverb "leisurely" gives us the infinitive phrase "to drive leisurely.”And that's all we mean by infinitive and infinitive phrase!
Now with that in mind, we can go ahead and take a look at split infinitives.
An infinitive (like "to drive") becomes split when we place one or more words in between the word "to" and whatever verb comes immediately after it. Usually we do this because we're trying to modify the verb. It might look like this:
The whole point o f taking a road trip, as you know; is to leisurely drive.

Gerund
Gerund works as a noun. It is made by adding ‘ing’ to the first form of the verb.
For example - Walk + ing = Walking.
Rules relating to gerund:-

(a) It is used as a subject of the verb,
i.e., Walking is a good exercise.
Swimming is good for health.

(b) it is used as an object of the verb,
i.e., I do not like playing cricket.
She hates smoking.

(c) It is used as a compliment of the verb,
i.e., Seeing is believing.
His habit was quarrelling.

(d) It is used as an object of the preposition,
i.e., He is fond of singing.
You are good at dancing.

(e) Gerund is generally used with the following verbs, i.e., avoid, complete, enjoy, favour etc.

Assignment-1

He gave up___ by air. (travel)
We enjoyed__ in the river, (swim)
She likes in the evening, (walk)
The tailor completed___ the shirt, (sew)
He avoids people in the morning, (meet)

Answers:
1. Travelling
2. Swimming
3. Walking
4. Sewing
5. Meeting

Participle:
A participle works both as a verb and as an adjective. It is used as an adjective in a sentence. There are three kinds of participle:-

(a) Present Participle - It is made by adding 'ing' to the first form of the verb,
i.e., swimming in the river, he was drowned.
Barking dogs seldom bite.

(b) Past Participle - Third form of the verb is called past participle,
i.e., Did you throw away the faded flower?
A broken pen is of no use.

(c) Perfect Participle - In this/ having' is used before third form of the verb,
i.e., having taught him, I returned home.
Having tired, he took rest.

Assignment - 2
Fill in the blanks with the correct participle: