Gerunds and Infinitives Uses

What are Gerunds.?

A gerund is a verb in its ing (present participle) form that functions as a noun that names an activity rather than a person or thing. Any action verb can be made into a gerund.
Spelling Tip
Verbing (Present Participle)Add ing to most verbs. Ex. play > playing, cry > crying, bark > barking

• For verbs that end in e, remove the e and add ing. Ex: slide > sliding, ride > riding
  For verbs that end in ie, change the ie to y and add ing. Ex: die > dying, tie > tying
  For a verb whose last syllable is written with a consonant-vowel-consonant and is stressed, double the last letter before adding ing. Ex: beg > begging, begin > beginning. However: enter > entering (the last syllable is not stressed)

A gerund is an -ing verb form used as a noun.

Like a verb, a gerund can take objects and be modified by adverbs and adverbial phrases, but its function in a sentence is to serve as a noun–a noun that ends in -ing.
What do nouns do? Nouns are used as the following parts of a sentence:
1. Subject
2. Direct Object
3. Subject Complement
4. An object of a Preposition
Anything a noun can do, a gerund can do–because a gerund is a noun. A gerund is a noun that ends in -ing. Gerunds may be used alone or as part of a phrase.

What are Infinitives?

An infinitive is a verb form that acts as other parts of speech in a sentence. It is formed with to + base form of the verb.
Ex: to buy, to work.
An infinitive is a phrase, consisting of the word to and the basic form of a verb, that functions as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb.

Here’s a discussion of the five types of infinitives.

1. Subject
An infinitive can constitute the subject of a sentence. For example, in “To go, even after all that trouble, didn’t seem worthwhile anymore,” “to go” is the action that drives the sentence.

2. Direct Object
In the sentence “We all want to see,” “to see” is the direct object, the noun (or noun substitute) that receives the action of the verb. “To see” refers to a thing being done — or, in this case, desired to be done: the act of seeing.

3. Subject Complement
In “My goal is to write,” “to write” is the subject complement. A subject complement looks just like a direct object, but the difference is in the type of verb preceding it. The verb in the previous example, want, is a transitive verb. (Transitive verbs have two defining characteristics: They precede a direct object, and they express an action.)
In “My goal is to write,” the verb is a popular or linking, verb — one that links a subject to a word or phrase that complements it. (In this sentence, “to write” is the goal, so it’s the complement of a goal. Note that in the previous example, “to see” is what those referred to as we want, but it’s not the complement of we.)

4. Adjective
In “She didn’t have permission to go,” “to go” modifies permission — it describes what type of permission is being discussed — so the phrase serves as an adjective.

5. Adverb
In “He took the psychology class to try to understand human behavior,” “to understand (human behavior)” explains why the taking of the class occurred, so it’s an adverb modifying the verb took.

Gerunds and Infinitives Uses

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