Prepared by Colin S MacDonald
Verbals
UNIT 4
Technical English 2 (Slide 2 – Page 69) Prepared by Colin S MacDonald
UNIT 4 – Verbals
What is a Verbal?
Verbals are formed from verbs and act
like adjectives, adverbs, or nouns in a
sentence.
INFINITIV
E
PARTICIPL
E
GERUND
There are three basic types of verbals.
Technical English 2 (Slide 3 – Page 69) Prepared by Colin S MacDonald
UNIT 4 – Verbals
SKILL 57: Recognize the form of
infinitives and infinitive phrases
Examples: to walking ✘
to the park ✘
to walk ✔
to walk to the park ✔
FORMS OF THE INFINITIVE
ACTIVE
to + VERB
PASSIVE
to be + VERB
NOTES:
● Infinitives can have modifiers (e.g. prepositional phrases) to make infinitive phrases
● Infinitives can have continuous and perfect forms

advise, allow, convince, remind, encourage,
force, hire, teach, instruct, invite, permit, tell,
implore, incite, appoint, order
NOTES:
● The verbs ask, expect, (would) like, and want can be used with or without actors.
● The information given above shows only a small selection of verbs that can take infinitives or
infinitive phrases
Examples: She refused to tell me his name. ✔
She refused telling me his name. ✘
The teacher allowed the students to go early. ✔
The teacher allowed the students going early. ✘