A verbal noun or gerundial noun is a verb form that functions as a noun. An example of a verbal noun in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

is 'sacking' as in the sentence "The sacking of the city was an epochal event" (''sacking'' is a noun formed from the verb ''sack''). Verbal nouns are morphologically related to non-finite verb forms, but they are not themselves non-finite verbs. Non-finite verb forms are forms such as

gerund In linguistics, a gerund ( abbreviated ) is any of various nonfinite verb forms in various languages; most often, but not exclusively, one that functions as a noun. In English, it has the properties of both verb and noun, such as being modifiab ...

infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is de ...

s and

participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...

s in

. Some grammarians use the term "verbal noun" to cover verbal noun, gerund, and nominal infinitive. Some may use the term "gerund" to cover both verbal noun and gerund. "Verbal noun" has often been treated as a synonym for "gerund". This article includes only gerundial nouns within the scope of "verbal nouns", excluding gerunds, nominal infinitives, and nouns formed from verbs through derivational processes. Outside of English, the term "verbal noun" may be used for 1) the citation form of verbs such as the

masdar Masdar,(Arabic:مصدر‎), also known as the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, is a UAE-government owned renewable energy company based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Masdar is a subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company and was founded by ...

in Arabic and the verbal noun (''berfenw'') in

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

or 2) declinable verb forms in Mongolian that can serve as predicates, comparable to

s but with a larger area of syntactic use

Types

Verbal or gerundial nouns, while being derived from verbs, behave grammatically entirely as nouns. For example, they do not take direct objects as verbs can, they may be preceded by the definite article, and they are modified by adjectives rather than adverbs. They may also be used as

count noun In linguistics, a count noun (also countable noun) is a noun that can be modified by a quantity and that occurs in both singular and plural forms, and that can co-occur with quantificational determiners like ''every'', ''each'', ''several'', e ...

s and pluralized. In English, verbal nouns are formed from verbs with the suffix ''-ing'', that is, they take the same form as the gerund. Examples of such uses are given below: :: The killing of the president was an atrocious crime. (Verbal noun) :: Killing the president was an atrocious crime. (Gerund) :: The rapid erasing of the tape saved our bacon. (Verbal noun) :: Rapidly erasing the tape saved our bacon. (Gerund) Note how the undergoer of ''killing'' and ''erasing'' is specified in the form of a

prepositional phrase An adpositional phrase, in linguistics, is a syntactic category that includes ''prepositional phrases'', ''postpositional phrases'', and ''circumpositional phrases''. Adpositional phrases contain an adposition (preposition, postposition, or ci ...

in the case of the verbal noun: ''of the president'' and ''of the tape''. This is because ''killing'' and ''erasing'' function as nouns in this sentence and as such cannot take an object directly; instead the words ''president'' and ''tape'' (respectively) must be made object of the preposition ''of''. Verbs also may be nominalized through derivational processes, such as adding different suffixes, as in ''discovery'' from the verb ''discover'', or by simple

conversion Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

, as with the noun ''love'' from the verb ''love''. The formation of such deverbal nouns is not generally a

productive Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...

process, that is, it cannot be indiscriminately applied to form nouns from any verb (for example, there is no noun *''uncovery'' for the verb ''uncover''). When they exist, such deverbal nouns often tend to replace the regularly formed verbal noun (as ''discovery'' is usually used rather than ''discovering'', although the latter is still common as a gerund), or else a differentiation in meaning becomes established. Other verb forms serving as nouns within the sentence include

s and

s. However, these are excluded from the scope of verbal nouns at this article.

Notes

{{Authority control Nouns by type