1.0. Grammatical description

There are the following forms of the verb, or verbals: the infinitive, the gerund, the participle (participle I and participle II).

1.1. Semantics

The verbals express actions, states or processes. 1.2.0. Morphological Characteristics

The three verbals; the infinitive, the gerund, the participle I – have the grammatical categories of order and voice. The infinitive has also grammatical category – aspect.

1.2.1. Order.

The category of order is built up two forms: perfect and non-perfect.

	Non-perfect	Perfect
Infinitive	To ask, to give	To have asked, to have given
Gerund	Asking, giving	Having asked, having given
Participle I	Asking, giving	Having asked, having given

The perfect form is used to present the event as prior to another event.

I am glad to have given her this book. (I am glad that I gave her the book then, and now I am glad.)

I am glad to have given her book. (I was glad that I had given her I gave her the book. I gave her the book and was glad afterwards.)

The non-perfect form will be generally used to present the event as to another event (simultaneous, posterior or referring to non-particular time).

I enjoyed reading this book. (While reading this book, I enjoyed the process.)

We very much approve of his reading such books. (We approve that he reads such books, but do not specify the time when he does it.)

1.2.2. Voice

The category of voice is built up by two forms: passive and active.

	active	passive
Infinitive	To ask, to give	To be asked, to be given
Gerund	Asking, giving	Being asked, being given
Participle I	Asking, giving	Being asked, being given

The active form of the verbals will indicate that the doer of the action is denoted by the subject of the sentence, the passive form – that the doer of the action is not denoted by the subject of the sentence.

I wanted to ask him that question. I wanted to be asked that question.

1.2.3. Aspect

The category of aspect is built up by two aspect forms:

continuous and common. Only one verbal, as was said above, has the category of aspect- it is infinitive.

common continuous

to write, to read to be writing, to be reading

The continuous form of the infinitive will generally indicate that the event is presented as temporary, as being in progress at the time of another event or at a definite moment (period). The common form will be often used just to name the event without specifying its character or time.

I like to be reading a book now. (It is very pleasant to me that am reading a book.)

I like to read this books (I like doing it whenever I have the opportunity, though at the moment I may be doing something else.)

Participle II, as was said above, has one unalterable form. Consequently, it has no morphological, grammatical categories.

When formed from transitive terminative verbs, it is generally passive and perfective in meaning.

When formed by non-terminative transitive verbs, it is generally passive but non-perfective.