Yes, I think these are correct as objects. In some cases I’d probably consider the whole verb phrase the object though, to be clear, though, eg ‘appear to be correct’.

“I’m not going unless you agree to go with me.”
“You appear to be correct.”
“Please be quiet; I’m trying to study.”
“They’re attempting to solve the equation.”
“Let me know if you decide to leave early.”
“We hope to go in the near future.”
“We rarely manage to get out of the house for the night.”

Hi Carlos,

If I understand correctly, do you mean to ask if modal verbs essentially take the place of “do” in these constructions? If so then yes, as a more general point I’d say in these situations we have a main verb which is conjugated, such as “do” or a modal verb, and the bare infinitive comes as a second verb, affected or applied by that verb.

Phil

Excuse me, in the part of modal verbs and bare infinitive it’s like we use bare infinitive with auxiliaries because auxiliares modifie bare infinitives like “do” and “modal verbs” ?

Hi Idalid,

Apologies for the slow reply, I thought I had responded to this. Yes I think you’ve summarised it fine; the word type depends on its grammatical function, with gerund essentially being the label we give the participle form when it is used as a noun or adjective.

Phil

As I’ve been thought, about gerund, they are confused by present participle verb form.
All gerund have -ing
As all present participle verb.
The first-one is considered a noun or adjective.
The second-one is a verb used next the auxiliary verb to be for simple progressive tense form, present, past, or future.
As well perfect progressive tense form in present, past, and future.
There is a misleading spread info about it, but I may be wrong, help me about in that case.

Hi Shizuka, Yes that’s right, it would be more grammatical with that “in”!

Your article above quotes ‘The first sentence the main verb, did, means completed in the past, while in the second sentence uses did as an auxiliary, to create a question.’ Must be some typos, perhaps rephrasing slightly as ‘In the first sentence, the main verb, did, means completed in the past, while the second sentence uses did as as an auxiliary to create a questions’. May I know if my proposed re-phrasing is grammatical? thanks!

Regards,
Shizuka

Hi Shizuka,

I suppose this is another area where it depends on what we’re trying to define or clarify. You’re right that verbal can be used for these different types of words that derive from a verb, but it’s not a term I use as I don’t think it serves much purpose in the context of language functions. I personally use verb to refer to the verb in its various conjugated forms, but also to refer to a complete verb phrase as it functions in a sentence (depending on if we’re looking at it at a sentence or word level). In the latter context, yes, you could include an infinitive, -ing form or participle under that label. But if I were breaking down a verb phrase, I’d distinguish between the verb that’s conjugated and an infinitive or participle, to explain how the verb phrase is made up. These words each have specific functions and places in the structure of English that can help to explain how the language works, whereas the term verbals serves more of an etymological purpose which isn’t necessarily useful if we’re concerned with explaining verb functions.

To try and specifically answer you question then, verbals aren’t exactly considered verbs in the context of language learning; I’d see it more as a way to group words based on their origins than their grammatical function.

Phil

Firstly, is it right to say that there are three categories of verbals, namely infinitives, gerunds and participles?

Secondly, you mentioned that “After the “do” auxiliary, the main verb becomes a bare infinitive”, so a “bare infinitive” = a verb? I ask this because I thought verbs are verbs and infinitives (being what are called verbals) while derived from verbs, are not considered as verbs?

Thirdly, as you’ve mentioned in the article above, the verbs following the auxiliary verbs (e.g. “Do” as well as the modal verbs) must always be in the base form of the verb (or as you put it, its bare infinitive form), I am curious how we see the other tenses formed using other auxiliary verbs (e.g. forms of the verb “Be”, such as is/are/were). So this links back to my second query above, are verbals (e.g. bare infinitives) considered as verbs? If so, this means the other verbals such as gerunds and participles are also considered verbs? As such, let’s examine an example in the present continuous tense (e.g. I am running), am I right to say that the auxiliary verb is “am”, while running is a verbal (i.e. a participle) which is also considered as a verb, since it forms part of the complete verb “am running”?

Thanks!

Regards,
Shizuka