Non-finite verbs: Infinitive, Gerund and Participle

So far we have seen different types of verbs. They all inflect for tense and agree in number
with the subject, e.g.: He sings (the “s” after the verb sing shows the inflection for the 3rd
person singular in the Simple Present Tense). All of them are called Finite Verbs.

Non-finite verbs -also called verbals- are those verbs which do not show tense and do not
agree as to person and number with the subject.

There are three types of non-finite verbs:

 
  To infinitive  
Infinitive  
  Bare infinitive

  Participle   Present Participle  

  Past Participle

  Gerund

An infinitive looks like the base form of a verb but it is not the main verb of a sentence. 

       e.g. : I like to play the guitar.

               She helped mum carry the parcels.

The Present and Past Participle refer to actions that take the form of adjectives or adverbs
in a sentence.
Look at these two examples:

       e.g.  He gestured towards the three cards lying on the table. 

               She found a dress made of paper.
        
In the first case, the -ing form follows a noun (cards) to show that something or somebody
is doing something (in this case, lying on the table).

In the second example, the -ed participle form is also used as an adjective modifying the
noun that comes before it (dress) to show that something has been produced or affected by
an action.

Now note the following examples where the Present and Past Participle forms are used as
adverbials:

       e.g.  Smoking at the entrance, he met the new teacher.

              Pleased with the results, the team decided to enrol for the following competition.

In the first example the -ing Participle is telling us when he met the new teacher, then its
function is Adverbial Adjunct of Time.
In the second example, the -ed Participle shows why the team decided to enrol for the
following competition, then its function is Adverbial Adjunct of Reason.

The Gerund is a non-finite verb ending in the -ing form that acts as a noun.
e.g.  We both love dancing.
        Swimming is a great sport.
    
In the following section we shall enlarge these concepts.