They shall have venison _to eat_, and corn _to hoe_.--COOPER.
Nolan himself saw that something was _to pay_.--E.E. HALE.
271. The various offices which the infinitive and the participle have in the sentence will be treated in Part II., under "Analysis," as we are now learning merely to recognize the forms.
272. The gerund is like the participle in form, and like a noun in use.
The participle has been called an adjectival verbal; the gerund may be called a _noun verbal_. While the gerund expresses action, it has several attributes of a noun,--it may be governed as a noun; it may be the subject of a verb, or the object of a verb or a preposition; it is often preceded by the definite article; it is frequently modified by a possessive noun or pronoun.
[Sidenote: _Distinguished from participle and verbal noun._]
273. It differs from the participle in being always used as a noun: it never belongs to or limits a noun.
It differs from the verbal noun in having the property of governing a noun (which the verbal noun has not) and of expressing action (the verbal noun merely names an action, Sec. II).
The following are examples of the uses of the gerund:--
(1) _Subject_: "The _taking_ of means not to see another morning had all day absorbed every energy;" "Certainly _dueling_ is bad, and has been put down."
(2) _Object_: (_a_) "Our culture therefore must not omit the _arming_ of the man." (_b_) "Nobody cares for _planting_ the poor fungus;" "I announce the good of _being interpenetrated_ by the mind that made nature;" "The guilt of _having been cured_ of the palsy by a Jewish maiden."
(3) _Governing and Governed_: "We are far from _having exhausted_ the significance of the few symbols we use," also (2, _b_), above; "He could embellish the characters with new traits without _violating_ probability;" "He could not help _holding_ out his hand in return."
Exercise.--Find sentences containing five participles, five infinitives, and five gerunds.
274. Words in -ing are of six kinds, according to use as well as meaning. They are as follows:--
(1) _Part of the verb_, making the definite tenses.
(2) _Pure participles_, which express action, but do not assert.
(3) _Participial adjectives_, which express action and also modify.