Two types of verbals can be used in the capacity of a noun: gerunds, which end in -ing, and infinitives, which are the base form of the verb preceded by to.

Gerunds
The easiest part of explaining gerunds and infinitives used as nouns is having students grasp the concept of what makes a word a noun. Everyone's been taught that a noun is "a person, place, or thing." Nouns are the actors of a sentences. But to move students into understanding that a word based on a verb is actually a noun is more difficult.

To get there, students must first understand abstract nouns, substantives without tangible substance. Telling them that fear, patriotism, and courage are nouns, that these concepts can be the subject of the sentence or the object of a verb or preposition, helps move learners into the realm of comprehending verbals as nouns. These qualities of human behavior are as real as pocket change, yet you can't physically grasp them. They exist as extensions of an act; that is, we sense them through an act, but they themselves are not the act. Thus, a person can exhibit fear when acting scared, or courage when being brave, but fear and courage are the acts of a scared or brave person, not their actions.

For instance, in the following sentence

Running every morning keeps me in shape.

running is not the verb, as too many guess, but the subject, and in the sentence

Carole desperately wanted to win the lottery.

to win is the direct object, not the verb. Students not taught to analyze sentences (which is almost all students) will jump to name as a verb anything that appears to be a verb. This is the main reason I do not speak of verbals as non-finite verbs. I want students to understand the function of words within sentence patterns and to do this I use the main verb as the pivot point of any sentence or clause.

In the first example above, I would direct the students' attention away from running, which they are quick to catch, as it's the first word, by asking if anyone or anything in the sentence is doing the running. When they can't find a subject, I ask if there are any other action words in the sentence. Someone is bound to say keeps. So I ask them the surefire question used to determine a subject, "Who or what keeps 'me' in shape?" At this point they can answer that running does. To solidify that function in their minds, I tell them to substitute exercise for running, and they then easily grasp the fact that exercise is a noun. I have already explained to them that when a word ends in ing, and is not the main verb of the sentence (that is, it isn't linked to a helping verb), and it does not modify a noun, then it must be a noun.

Mutant verbs that they are, gerunds have the ability to take an object, as in the following sentence:

Sorting his comic books was Orson's favorite pastime.

To have them find the subject of the sentence, ask students "What was Orson's favorite pastime?" To have them understand that the gerund can take an object, ask "Sorting what?"

Once students grasp the concept of gerunds as nouns, use this anchor to show how they can be direct or indirect objects, verbal complements, or objects of prepositions. The slideshow noted in the sidebar gives examples of each of these uses.

Infinitives as Nouns
Identifying the presence of infinitives is easy: they look like verbs and are preceded by a to. Identifying their function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs takes more practice, so I point out to students that they should use the verb to ask themselves the questions to determine a subject or an object.   In the second example above, I would ask them "Carole desperately wanted what?" The answer then is obvious, she wanted to win the lottery, answering that question shows them the infinitive phrase is the direct object, a noun.

Infinitives can also function as adjectives or adverbs.  The next section covers these functions and those of participles.

Next, Verbals as Modifiers