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Verbals and Verbal Phrases
A verbal is a verb form that functions in a sentence as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb.
A verbal phrase is a verbal plus any complements and modifiers.
(Verbals include participles, gerunds, and infinitives.)
A participial
Examples:
A past participle may be used with the present participle of the auxiliary verb have or be.
Examples:
Exercise 1: Highlight the participle or participial phrase that acts as an adjective in each sentence.
Draw a line to the word each one modifies.
1. George Lucas achieved international fame in 1977 with his stunning science fiction movie Star
Wars.
2. Celebrated for its superb special effects and suspenseful story, Star Wars has become a classic.
3. Raised in California, Lucas developed an interest in movies.
4. Having competed against other students, he won a national film competition in 1967 at the age of
twenty-three.
5. Lucas first major success was the popular American Graffiti (1973), a film portraying the lives of
California teenagers in the 1960s.
6. By 1983, having produced The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi, Lucas again
proved his great versatility.
Training is essential.
We considered flying.
We should give speaking more attention.
Do all of us get credit for trying?
Their passions were sailing and sculling.
Two skills, reading and writing, are basic.
NOTE: Although both a present participle and a gerund end in ing, they serve as different parts of
speech. A present participle is used as an adjective in its sentence, whereas a gerund is used as a
noun.
Examples:
Exercise 3: Participles or Gerunds? Highlight the verbal or verbal phrase in the sentences below.
Label each as participle or gerund.
1. One of the most devastating natural disasters in American history, Hurricane Andrew struck
Florida and Louisiana in August 1992.
2. Beginning as a patch of thunderstorms over western Africa, it moved across the Atlantic as a lowpressure wave.
3. About one thousand miles from Florida, the wind shear began slackening, and a high-pressure
zone to the north grew stronger.
4. Winds blowing at hurricane strength soon grew to 164 miles an hour.
5. At the National Hurricane Center in Coral Gables, Florida, the instruments for measuring wind
were knocked down.