Infinitive – gerund – participles The Infinitive

	Active	Passive
Present	(to) lose	(to) be lost
Present Continuous	(to) be losing	---
Perfect	(to) have lost	(to) have been lost
Perfect Continuous	(to) have been losing	---

The to-infinitive is used:

1 To express purpose:

Sam went to the bank to get some money.

2 After certain verbs: afford, agree, appear, decide, expect, hope, offer, plan, promise, refuse, want, etc.

He promised to help us.

3 After adjectives: happy, glad, clever, mean, stupid, etc:

I’m very glad to see you.

4 After too / enough

She is too young to stay out so late.

The bare infinitive is used:

1 After the modal verbs (must, may, should, can, etc.)

You must study hard.

2 After the verbs let, make, see, hear, and feel.

They made him pay for the damage.

The Gerund

	Active	Passive
Simple	losing	being lost
Perfect	having lost	having been lost

The Gerund is used:

1 As a noun:

Swimming keeps you fit..

2 After certain verbs: admit, avoid, consider, delay, deny, discuss, enjoy,

imagine, postpone, suggest, etc

They considered moving to Spain.

3 After dislike, enjoy, hate, like, love, prefer:

She likes painting.

BUT: I would like to go to the cinema tomorrow.

4 After expressions such as: it’s no use, what’s the use, can’t help

there’s no point (in), can’t stand

What’s the use of waiting for an answer?

5 After prepositions:

He left without saying goodbye.

He was found guilty of lying in court.

The Participles

The Participles are:

Present Participles (staying, leaving, etc.),

Perfect Participles (having left, etc.).

Past Participles (stayed, left, etc.)

1 Present and past participles can be used as adjectives.

It was an embarrassing situation. (What kind of situation? Embarrassing.)

He was embarrassed. (How did he feel? Embarrassed.)

2 Participles can also be used:

a to express reason.

Feeling shy, Laura didn't talk to Ben.

Having seen the film before, I decided to stay at home.(= Because I had seen the film before, I decided to stay at home.)

b to express time.

After taking/having taken his Master's degree, he applied for a job.

Having taken his Master's degree, he applied for a job.

We met John while shopping.

c instead of the past simple in narratives when we describe actions

happening immediately one after the other.

Hearing the news, she fainted.

d to avoid repeating the past continuous in the same sentence.

He was walking down the street whistling a tune. (= He was walking down the street and he was whistling a tune.)

Suffixes Common suffixes for nouns

-ance, -ence

Often used to form abstract nouns from adjectives ending in -ant or -ent:

patient – patience, tolerant – tolerance.

-ее

Used to describe a person on whom an action is performed: employee (= person who is employed), trainee (= person who is being trained).

- er, -ian, -or

Often used for people or things that do a particular job: act – actor, football – footballer, music – musician.

-hood

Used to form abstract nouns, especially those concerned with periods of life or relationships between people: child – childhood. mother - motherhood

-ism

Often used to describe particular religions or ideologies, and with some abstract nouns: liberalism, criticism, cynicism.

-ist

Used to describe people's beliefs and sometimes their occupation:

journalis, pianist.

-ity, -iety, -y

Used to form nouns from adjectives:anxious – anxiety, immune – immunity.

-tion, -(s)sion

Often used to form nouns from verbs: imagine – imagination, admit – admission.

-ment

Often used to form abstract nouns from verbs: enjoy – enjoyment, move – movement.

-ness

Often used to form abstract nouns from adjectives: happy – happiness nervous – nervousness.

-ship

Used to form abstract nouns, usually about relationships: friend – friendship member – membership.

Common suffixes for adjectives

-able, -ible	miserable, responsible
-al	physical, psychological
-ant, -ent, -ient	pleasant, violent, efficient
-ed	depressed, talented
-ful	powerful, successful
-ic	enthusiastic, scientific
-ing	exciting, interesting
-ive	aggressive
-less	intensive
-ious	hopeless, penniless (= without)
-ous	anxious, nervous
-y	healthy, wealthy

Remember!

Many adjectives to describe feelings have both an -ing and an -ed form.

annoyed / annoying depressed / depressing excited / exciting

The -ed form describes how you feel.

I'm very tired this morning.

The -ing form describes what makes you feel that way.

Looking after babies can be very tiring

However, not all -ed / -ing adjectives have both forms.

Ben is a very talented musician. Fortunately, her illness isn't catching.

Prefixes used to form opposites

dis-	disloyal, displeased*
il-	illegal, illiterate
im-	immature, impossible
in-	inexperienced, insecure
un-	unhappy, unpopular*

* Note that these prefixes can also be used with some verbs, e.g. disagree,

unlock.

Other prefixes which change meaning

prefix	examples	meaning
anti-	anti-social, anti-war	against
mis-	mismanaged	badly, in the wrong way
non	non-stop, non-smoking	without, not
over-	over-cooked	too much
post-	post-war	after
pre-	pre-war	before
pro-	pro-European	in favour of
re	re-united, re-charged	again
self	self-confident	relating to itself
under	under-closed	not enough