Basic Concept of Gerund, participle & Infinitive

A gerund is a present participle (verb + ing) which works as a noun in a sentence. A gerund can only function as a noun. 

Example : 

1.    Swimming is a good exercise.

2.    Teaching is a great profession.

3.    Chair-sitting is a funny game.

4.    Playing for this team is an honor.

5.    Sleeping at this hour of the day is not good for health.

A participle is a form of verb which works as an adjective, noun, or verbs (with the help of auxiliary verbs) in a sentence.  Participles are mainly of two types:

1. Present Participle 2. Past Participle

Example:  

1.    I saw him walking there.

2.    They had broken up their marriage.

3.    Don’t sit on that spinning chair.

4.    I saw a sleeping cat.

An infinitive verb is a verb form that takes a ‘to’ before the base form, as in ‘to take’, ‘to buy’, ‘to go’, etc. It is a term that is also used to refer to the base verb that does not function as the verb in the sentence.

An infinitive verb can perform three main roles – the roles of a noun, an adverb and an adjective. Let us learn how this particular form is used in sentences.

Infinitive Verbs as Nouns

When infinitive verbs are used as nouns, they answer the question ‘what’. Make sure you use the full infinitive form when the infinitive is employed as a noun in the sentence. A famous example is ‘To err is human; to forgive is divine’. Here are a few more examples.

Example 1:

To reach after sunset felt meaningless, but it was still worth the long trek.

In the above sentence, ‘to reach’ is the infinitive that takes the place of the subject in the sentence.

Example 2:

All we wanted was to rest.

In this sentence, ‘to rest’ is the infinitive that works as the object of the verb ‘was’.

Infinitive Verbs as Adjectives

Adjectives are words that modify nouns. When infinitive verbs modify or add extra information about the noun in a sentence, it is said to be an adjective.

Example 1:

We are expecting someone to help us.

Here, in this sentence, ‘to help’ is the infinitive that provides more information about the pronoun ‘someone’.

Example 2:

I haven’t bought all the ingredients to bake the cake.

In the above sentence, ‘to bake’ modifies the noun phrase ‘all the ingredients’.

Infinitive Verbs as Adverbs

Adverbs provide more information about the verb, adverb or adjective in a sentence; so does an infinitive verb that takes the place of an adverb. In this case, they explain why the particular action is being performed. Let us understand how this works with the help of a few examples.

Example 

I would like to eat some chocolates.

In this example, ‘to eat’ is the infinitive verb that tells what the subject (I) like in the sentence.