Infinitives

- a form of a verb that generally appears with the word "to" and acts as a noun, adjective, or adverb

Examples:

Subject: To apologize takes courage and humility.Direct Object: Alone and frightened, she wanted to survive.Object of a Preposition: He had no choice except to relent.Appositive: His goal, to travel, was never realized.Adjective: The director of the camp is the person to notify. Adverbs: She worked to improve.Afraid to speak, he looked at his shoes.

Infinitive Phrases

- an infinitive phrase with modifiers, complements, or a subject, all acting together as a single part of speech

Examples:

Professional dancers need to practice daily. (modified by an adverb)To stroll along the boardwalk at sunset is relaxing. (modified by two adverb phrases)Jill uses her microscope to magnify blood cells. (has a direct object)I need Donna to show me the way. (Has a subject and 2 complements, a direct object and an indirect object)

Gerunds

- a form of a verb that acts as a noun- always end in -ing- always act as nouns

Subject Dancing helps a person lose weight.

Direct Object On their vacation, the Rezendes discovered snorkeling.

Indirect Object His performance gives acting a bad name.Predicate Noun/Predicate Nominative One relaxing exercise is swimming.

Object of a Preposition After three hours, Steve was tired of studying.Appositive I have a new hobby, cooking.

Gerund Phrases

- a gerund with modifiers or a complement, all acting together as a noun- may be part of a phrase

The loud, irregular snoring annoyed him. (Modified by adjectives)Waiting for the bus exhausted her patience. (Modified by an adjective phrase)Vicky's morning routine includes showering leisurely. (Modified by an adverb)Their parents forbade shouting in the house. (Modified by an adverb phrase)His favorite pastime is leaving her mysterious notes. (Have complements)Denise's greatest accomplishment was becoming president. (Have complements)They ran into the house without removing their muddy shoes. (Have complements)

Participles

- form of a verb that can act as an adjective- fall into two groups: present participles and past participles

Present Participles- end in –ing- examples: dancing, ending, waiting

Past Participles- generally end in –ing- may also have irregular endings such as –t or –en- examples: danced, played waited, burnt, spoken

Present Participles Past ParticiplesA whining sound came from the engine of the

car.The cracked ice looked like slivers of glass.

Smiling, the official shook my hand. Disgusted, Len walked away without saying goodbye.

Participles answer the questions for adjectives, “What kind?” or “Which one?”

Example: A whining sound came from the engine of the car.(What kind of sound? A whining sound)

The frozen pipe needs to be repaired.(Which pipe? The frozen pipe)

Participial Phrases

- participle modified by an adverb or adverb phrase or accompanied by a complement.- entire phrase acts as an adjective

Examples:

Swimming leisurely, we didn’t notice the dolphin approach.

Frightened by its sudden appearance, I yelled, “Shark!”

The lifeguard, using her megaphone, told us not to panic.

Placement- a participial phrase can usually be placed either before or after the word it modifies.- example: Munching hay, the elephant looked content. The elephant, munching hay, looked content.

Punctuation- when a participial phrase distinguishes one person, place, or thing from others, it is not set off by commas.- example: The boy wearing the blue sweater is my brother.

Used to Combine Sentences- participial phrases can often be used to combine information from 2 sentences into 1 sentence

- example: We picked up the injured bird. We could see it had a broken wing. Picking up the injured bird, we saw it had a broken wing.

Source: Prentice Hall Grammar and Composition