Was in my room when i heard a plane in the sky. my little brother, andrew, was at a friend's house. mummy wasn't in the room. seth was at work. (seth is my stepfather.) usually i don't look at planes. but soon i will fly to nebraska to visit granny and grandad. (they are seth's mother and father. they live on a farm.) "hey, plane! " i called. "soon i will ride on you! " i went to my bed. a suitcase1 was on the bed. "goosie," i said to my toy cat, "i will bring you to nebraska with me. but i will not pack2 you now."3 goosie didn't answer. but i talked to him. i am karen brewer. i am seven years old. my brother is four. we both have blond hair and blue eyes. i like real animals and toy animals. you can talk to them. they cannot answer but you can think that they can talk. "goosie," i said, "i hope you are not afraid of flying to nebraska i am not afraid. once i went to the camp. kristy and her friends were there." (kristy is my big stepsister.) "but now i will stay with granny and grandad." i looked at my suitcase. "oh, i forgot my roller skates! " i put my skates. then i put five books and my doll. i wanted to close the suitcase. but i could not do it. "do you want my help, karen? " asked mummy. (after ann m. martin) karen andrew goosie karen’s grandparents karen’s mother a. will visit seth's mother and father. b. is four. c. is a toy cat. d. isn't afraid of flying. e. live on the farm. f. has got blond hair and blue eyes. g. will fly on the plane. h. was in a camp once. i. wanted to help to pack a suitcase.

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Humanities › English

The Difference Between Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives

Verbals in English Grammar: Definitions, Examples, and Exercises

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By 

Richard Nordquist

Updated 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 endings—for 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):