Verbals (non-finite forms of the verb)

§ 163. There are three verbals in English: the infinitive, the ing-form and the participle.

The infinitive is a plain verb stem which is usually preceded by the unstressed particle to, e.g. to take. In addition to the sim- ple form, the infinitive has the following analytical forms: con- tinuous — to be taking, perfect — to have taken, perfect continu- ous — to have been taking, simple passive — to be taken, perfect passive — to have been taken.

The ing-form is built up by adding the suffix -ing to the stem of the verb, e.g. to take — taking (for spelling rules see "Verbs", § ll).

The ing-form also has analytical forms: perfect — having tak- en, passive — being taken, perfect passive — having been taken.

The participle of regular verbs is formed by adding the suffix -ed to the stem (for spelling rules and the pronunciation of the suffix see "Verbs", § 5). The participle of irregular verbs may be formed in different ways (see "Verbs", § 5 and Appendix).

The participle has only one form — it is invariable.

§ 164. In order to understand the nature of the verbals, it is necessary to compare them with the finite forms of the verb and bring out points of similarity points of difference between them.

As the infinitive and the ing-form have many features in com- mon they will be compared with the finite forms together.

The participle, which differs from both these forms conside- rably, will be compared with the finite forms separately.

The Infinitive and the ing-form

§ 165. The infinitive and the ing-form have the same lexical meaning as the finite forms of the corresponding verb.

But with regard to their grammatical categories the two ver- bals correspond to the finite forms only partly.

1. The infinitive and the ing-form lack the forms of person and number characteristic of the finite forms.

2. Mood can be expressed only by the finite forms.

It should be pointed out, however, that although the infinitive has no special mood forms and cannot represent an action either

as a real fact or as something unreal, it may in some functions express certain modal meanings — necessity, possibility, purpose:

e.g. a) necessity — I've got something dreadful to tell you.

2. possibility — I had nobody to talk to.

3. purpose — I'm going upstairs to pack my things.

The Perfect infinitive, in combination with some modal verbs, may sometimes show that its action was not realized in the past.

e.g. They should have told him about it.

3) Like the finite forms, the infinitive and the ing-form have active and passive forms, e.g. to take — to be taken, taking — be ing taken.

Like the finite forms, the infinitive and the ing-form can ex- press time, e.g. to take — to have taken, taking — having taken.

Yet, the two verbals differ considerably from finite verbs in this respect. The finite forms generally express time absolutely. i.e. they refer an action to the present, past or future (e.g. He knows English. He knew English. He will know English). The ver- bals express time relatively, i.e. in relation to the action of the predicate verb in the sentence. The action expressed by the verbals may be simultaneous with the action expressed by the predicate verb (a), may precede (b) or follow it (c).¹

e.g. a) He seemed to know all about it.

Roger was at home working on his speech.

b) He seemed to have guessed the truth.

Having looked at his watch he closed the book and put it on the shelf.

c) He was ready to assist them.

One afternoon, about half past five, when Thomas was counting on working for an hour or two more, the tele- phone rang.

Besides, the simple forms of the verbals themselves are capa- ble of expressing all kinds of time relations. The various time re- lations they express depend on the lexical character of the verb and on the context.

¹ It is true that the finite forms may also express time relatively, but that occurs only in certain sentence patterns.

The infinitive tends to express an action following that of the predicate verb (a), but it may also denote an action simultaneous with it (b). However, the simple form of the infinitive does not often express an action that precedes the action of the predicate verb (c).

e.g. a) He felt a quick impulse to call the boy back.

b) She was admiring his ability to concentrate on any task.

c) Sylvia was glad to run across her old schoolmate.

The ing-form tends to express actions simultaneous with that of the predicate verb (a). But it is also extensively used to express priority (b) and, sometimes, an action following that of the predi- cate verb (c).

e.g. a) This Saturday afternoon Henry, home from his office, sat at his study table, drawing cats on the blotter, waiting for his wife to come back from a lunch.

b) I remembered hearing my aunt telling me in my childhood

that great men never cared for flattery. ¹

c) She insisted on coming with me but I finally managed to

talk her out of it.

The time relations expressed by the passive forms are the same as those of the corresponding active forms.

On the whole it should be noted that it is the simple form of the verbals that is in extensive use in English. The analytical ing- forms are infrequent, but they are commonly used with modal verbs (in some of their meanings), e.g. He must be happy now. He must be sleeping. He must have misunderstood you. He must have been waiting for you. The experiment must be finished already. The experiment must have been carried out by now.

In other cases the continuous infinitive is generally used only to emphasize the idea of duration, of process and to make the statement more vivid and expressive. A simple infinitive is often possible in the same sentence.

1 Here the action of hearing precedes the action of the predicate verb remembered, the use of the perfect Ing-form is an exception.

e.g. It was pleasant to be driving the car again.

I'm not a man to be talking of what does not concern me.

It would be possible to use the simple forms to drive and to talk in the above examples.

The perfect infinitive is more or less frequent after verbs of mental perception, the verbs to seem, to happen, to appear and a few others. It shows that the action took place before the action of the predicate verb.

e.g. Their marriage was supposed to have been a very happy one. A sense of timing is one of the things I seem to have learned from Jimmy.

The Perfect Continuous infinitive is mainly found after the same verbs as the Perfect infinitive. It shows that the action of the infinitive began before the time indicated by the finite verb and is still going on.

e.g. She was believed to have been feeling unwell for some time. They seemed to have been getting on a bit better.

The forms of the two verbals are summed up in the following tables:

The Infinitive

	Active	Passive
Simple	to take	to be taken
Perfect	to have taken	to have been taken
Continuous	to be taking	—
Perfect Continuous	to have been taking	—

The ing-form

	Active	Passive
Simple	taking	being taken
Perfect	having taken	having been taken