Even many teachers who have been “taught” grammar are not familiar with the term “verbal.” A verbal is a verb that functions as noun, adjective, or adverb. In other words, verbals can function in any way that a noun, adjective, or adverb can. In KISS Level Four — Verbals, students will learn that there are three, and only three, types of verbals (gerunds, gerundives, and infinitives). They will also learn that like any other verb, verbals can have subjects, complements and be modified by adverbs. Notes in the analysis keys explain the subjects and complements of verbals, but remember that these explanations are for teachers and parents. At this KISS Level (2.1.6) students simply need to learn how to distinguish finite verbs (the verbs they should underline twice) from verbals. They can learn how to do this by using the three tests explained in the instructional materials.

Consider:

In (1), “went” is a finite verb because it makes a sentence — “They went to the zoo.” “See,” however, is not. First, it’s got a “to” directly before it. But most importantly, the “to see” cannot be used to form an acceptable sentence — They to see the monkeys??? Zoo to see the monkeys??? Nonsense. Thus “to see” is a verbal. It functions as an adverb to explain why “They went.”

     Situations like that in (2) should be easy for students because, if they are using the KISS approach, “hunting” and “fishing” should already be tucked out of the way in the parentheses that mark prepositional phrases. Both “hunting” and “fishing” function as nouns, the objects of prepositions. In (3), “driving” is a verb, but it is not finite because the sentence does not mean “Anthony is driving”; it means that his driving — whenever he drives — is dangerous. Simply put, “driving” functions as a noun, the subject of the sentence. (Here again, meaning is crucial to the KISS approach.)

     Sentence (4) includes two verbals. “Hearing” is a verb, but it is not finite. If we ask “Who or what is hearing his mother call?” the answer is “Paul,” but “Paul hearing his mother call” is, as students know, not an acceptable sentence. Students should be expected to use their knowledge of basic sentence structure. Their knowledge of it is just as good as any grammarian’s. And it will help them to find — and then to ignore — the other verbal in (4). Thus, “call” is a verb, but “His mother call.” (unlike “His mother calls.”) is not an acceptable sentence. Thus “call” is not a finite verb. “His mother call” functions as a noun, the direct object of “Hearing.”

     As always in the KISS approach, students must pay attention to meaning. In (5),  students could make an acceptable sentence with “sent”: “He sent to the store.” But that is not what “sent” means in this sentence. It means “he *was* sent.” Verbs cannot be added to a phrase to make it finite. Such verbs are verbals. In this case, “Sent” functions as a verbal adjective that modifies “he.”If you are not familiar with verbals, you might want to look at KISS Level Four -- Verbals.

     There is one case that is not covered by the three tests. Consider, for example, the sentence: 

Since students will rightly see "Sam and Sally go to school every day" as an acceptable sentence, they will probably identify "go" as a finite verb. To see that it is not, we need to apply an additional test (which we might call the "Substitution Test"). If they were to substitute a pronoun for "Sam and Sally," every student would substitute "them" — "They made them go to school every day." And "Them go to school every day" fails the sentence test. You can, of course, add this test to the instructional material yourself. As of now, however, my sense is that such cases are relatively rare. Thus, rather than add instructional material for relatively rare cases, it is probably better to focus students' attention on the majority of cases, and to expect students to make mistakes with such rare cases. Once they have mastered the basic distinction, you can point out this additional test.

     Finite verbs are not easy to define. Perhaps that is why even many experienced English teachers do not know what they are. (Ask some.) This does not, by the way, suggest that teachers are stupid. The problem is that the professors who teach the teachers, and the people who write the textbooks, are more interested in teaching the names of constructions. They do not even attempt to help K-12 teachers learn how to analyze the sentences that students read and write. Thus, instead of using the term "verbals," the professors (and the textbooks) focus on the three types of verbals — "gerunds," "participles" (KISS "gerundives"), and "infinitives." This "Divide and Confuse" strategy keeps power and money in the hands of the professors and textbook publishers, but it does not help the teachers and students.

     The instructional materials for this objective begin with the three tests that students can use to make the distinction — the Noun Test, the "To" Test, and the Sentence Test. The first exercise is on the Noun Test, the second on the "To" test, and the third on the Sentence test. The material on the Noun Test includes a brief general explanation of verbals. The "Sentence Test" usually covers the examples in the "Noun" and "To" tests, but the "Noun" and "To" tests are easier to remember and to apply. This separation into three types of exercises should help teachers help students master one test at a time.
     Students are then given "A Summary Sheet of the Three Tests." Exercises four (a ? b) are on "Mixed" verbals. Exercise five is a "Passage for Analysis," and six is "Just for Fun." Students who have a good sense of what is, and what is not a good sentence, should be able to master this distinction with these seven exercises. If they need more practice, remember that you can find additional exercises in the on-line Master Master Collection of Exercises on the KISS web site. 

Two Notes of Caution:

     First, before you begin using these exercises, you should be sure that the students are fairly comfortable with identifying the finite verbs in the "basic" exercises, exercises in which there are few, if any, verbals. Students who cannot do so will probably find exercises on verbals extremely confusing and frustrating.
     Second, since, in context, every verb is either finite or a verbal, the instructional material on the "tests" explains much of KISS Level Four. It is, however, one thing to explain gerunds, gerundives and infinitives, and something quite different to expect the students to remember all these terms and details. Unfortunately, it is very easy to get caught up in teaching the three kinds of verbals. I simply want to emphasize, therefore, that the objective here is to enable students to identify the finite verbs, not the three types of verbals. The study of clauses (KISS Level Three) is much more important than the details of verbals. Once students  are at least well into the mastery of clauses, you can start the advanced work on verbals.
 

Suggested Directions for Analytical Exercises 1. Place parentheses ( ) around each prepositional phrase. 2. Underline every finite verb twice, its subject(s) once, and label any complements (“PA,” “PN,” “IO,” or “DO”). 3. Make a rectangle around each verbal.

Probable Time Required      How much time you want to devote to focusing on the distinction between finite verbs and verbals depends on several variables, including the amount of time you can spend on grammar, whether or not you are working within a coordinated curriculum design, and your personal objectives. Because infinitives (“to” plus a verb) frequently function as complements, the KISS grade-level books suggest introducing it in Grade Three. The basic distinction between finite verbs and verbals is then introduced in Grade Four. When you first introduce the distinction, if you have the time, you should probably do at least two exercises on the noun test, two on the “to” test, and two on the sentence test. (Review the first, in-class, before the students do the second.) The distinction, however, cannot simply be taught and then forgotten, as is so often the case in most grammar books.

Exercises in KISS Level 2.1.6