Gerund, Infinitive and Participle Tips and Tricks for Government Exams

Introduction

Gerund

A Gerund is a non-finite verb that functions as a noun. It is formed by adding ‘ing’ with a verb. (verb -ing) A gerund can be either the subject or object of a sentence. In most cases ‘gerund’ and ‘infinitives’ are easily replaceable.

Rules

• Verbs that take Gerunds or Infinitives as Verbal Direct Objects
  Preposition + Gerund. The gerund is used after certain verbs/phrases that are followed by appropriate prepositions instead of “to”
• Verbs that take Only Gerunds as Verbal Direct Objects
  Direct Gerund means using Verb+ing directly after the verb without any preposition. The following phrases and certain verbs are followed by a direct gerund. ‘‘Avoid, mind, detest, can’t help, can’t bear, resist, enjoy, resent, stop, start, postpone, defer, worth, prefer, consider, practise, finish, risk, pardon, excuse, forgive, it is no good/use, miss, imagine, regret, anticipate”
• To + Gerund After the preposition “to” 1st form of the verb is used but in certain cases given below “Verb+ing” – Gerund is used. Note the use of gerund correctly with to.- “Be used to, accustomed to, averse to, with a view to, due to, immune to, inclined to, prior to, addicted to, devoted to, in addition to, look forward to, object to, owing to, given to, taken to, disposed to, prone to”

Infinitive Verb

The infinitive is a kind of noun with certain features of a verb. “To” is used with the basic form of the verb to generate infinitives. (to+verb1) In English, when we talk about the infinitive we are usually referring to the present infinitive (to+verb1), which is the most common. There are, however, five other forms of the infinitive: the perfect infinitive (to have + verb3), the perfect continuous infinitive (to have been + verb + ing), the continuous infinitive (to be + verbing), the passive infinitive (to be + verb3) & the direct infinitive (verb1).

Rule

• How + Infinitive
  When Infinitive is used to express manner, method or a learning process, it is required to insert “how” before the infinitive resulting in the full structure- “How + to + verb1”
• Difference between ‘to+verb1’ and ‘for+verbing’
  “To+verb1” – infinitive is used to mention “purpose” whereas
  “for+verbing”- for+gerund is used to mention “reason”.
• Verbs that take Only Infinitives as Verbal Direct Objects
  Direct Infinitive (Bare infinitive) Direct Infinitive is used after the followings:-
  • Verbs- “let, bid, make, know, help, feel, hear, watch, see”
  • Phrases- “had better, had rather, would better, would rather”
  • Modals- “should, would, can, may, might, could, will, shall, must”
  • Phrases- “why, why not”
  • Structure- “have+object”

Participle

The participle is a word that is formed from a verb and that ends in -ing (present participle) or -ed, -en, etc. (past participle). In short – Participles are “ing” or “3rd” form of Verb. They are usually of three kinds:

Rule

• Participle as an Adjective Present participle (verbing) is used to mention the nature or habit of a noun or pronoun
• Participle as a connector
  • Present participle (Verbing) is used to connect to clauses when there is no time gap in actions. (i.e Actions happening simultaneously).
  • Past participle (Verb3) is used to connect the clauses when there is no time gap and the sentence is in passive voice.
  • Perfect participle (having+verb3) is used to connect clauses when there is atime gap to show.