Parts of Speech: Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives

Read the sentence. The teenagers went to town to muse over whether going to college or to university was the better choice. Which part of the sentence is an infinitive?

b. To muse

Read the sentence. To shine on the stage, a performer must create a dynamic connection with the audience. How does the infinitive in the sentence function?

a. As a noun

Read the sentence. Once the scientist completed to assemble the components, she tested her new device to see if it performed as expected. What is the best word to replace the infinitive in the sentence?

a. Assembling

Read the sentence. To host a party of this magnitude requires to clean and to organize the house before you get to the part where you can add decorations to the rooms. How should the sentence be revised to replace the infinitives with gerunds? Check all that apply.

a. By changing "To host" to "Hosting" b. By changing "to clean" to "cleaning" c. By changing "to organize" to "organizing"

Which are true about participles? Check all that apply.

a. Participles modify nouns. b. Participles modify pronouns.

Choose the best phrase to complete the sentence. During the summer, she likes _______ do a practice on her soccer skills so that she is ready to play in the fall.

a. To practice

Read the sentence. Abashed by the harsh criticism, the mortifying writer decided to rewrite the beginning of the book. What is the best way to revise the sentence?

b. Change "mortifying" to "mortified"

When a sentence includes a participial phrase, the phrase functions as a(n):

c. Adjective

Read the sentence. Craving a more cosmopolitan lifestyle, the rural students were excited to travel to the city. The underlined phrase is a(n)

c. Infinitive

Read the sentence. The administrator of the company, the woman overseeing the department, added new personnel to better augment the existing sales force. Which part of the sentence functions as an adverb?

c. To better augment