Verbals Review: Gerunds & Infinitives | Essential Grade 8-9

This Grade 8 and 9 grammar worksheet provides targeted practice for identifying and distinguishing between gerunds, participles, and infinitives. Students analyze 12 complex sentences to determine the function of specific verbal phrases. By isolating these linguistic structures, learners improve their syntactic awareness and writing precision through focused multiple-choice identification.

At a Glance

• Grade: 8-9 · Subject: ELA Grammar
• Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.8.1.A — Explain the function of gerunds, participles, and infinitives in specific sentences
• Skill Focus: Verbal Phrase Identification
• Format: 2 pages · 12 problems · Answer key included · PDF
• Best For: Grammar review or formative assessment
• Time: 15–20 minutes

The resource consists of a two-page PDF featuring 12 multiple-choice questions. Each question presents three sentence options, requiring students to select the one that contains a specific verbal type or, in later questions, identify sentences that contain no verbals at all. The layout is clean and distraction-free, suitable for independent work or guided practice.

Zero-Prep Workflow

• Print: Generate the two-page document in under 1 minute.
• Distribute: Hand out to students for immediate individual work (30 seconds).
• Review: Use the included answer key for rapid grading or peer-review sessions (30 seconds).

This streamlined design makes it an ideal choice for emergency sub plans or daily bell-ringer activities.

Standards Alignment: This worksheet aligns directly with `CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.8.1.A`, which requires students to explain the function of verbals in general and their function in particular sentences. It also supports L.9-10.1 by reinforcing the use of varied phrases to add interest to writing. Both standard codes can be copied directly into lesson plans, IEP goals, or district curriculum mapping tools.

How to Use It: Use this as a formative assessment after a direct instruction lesson on verbals to check for student misconceptions. Alternatively, assign it as a grammar warm-up over two days. Observe if students struggle more with participles versus gerunds to guide your next small-group intervention. Completion typically takes 15 to 20 minutes depending on student proficiency.

Who It's For: This resource is designed for Grade 8 and 9 ELA students, including those in honors tracks or those needing targeted grammar intervention. It pairs naturally with a mentor text analysis where students hunt for similar verbals in professional writing or an anchor chart detailing the "-ing" distinction between gerunds and participles.

Mastery of verbal phrases is a critical milestone in middle school literacy, as identified by the CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.8.1.A standard. According to Fisher & Frey (2014), the ability to identify and manipulate complex grammatical structures like gerunds and infinitives is directly linked to improved reading comprehension and sophisticated sentence variety in student writing. This worksheet provides the necessary repetition to move students from basic recognition to functional application. By requiring students to distinguish between similar-looking phrases, such as gerunds versus present participles, the resource builds the metalinguistic awareness required for high school level composition. Research from the NAEP suggests that students who receive explicit instruction in grammar within the context of sentence structure demonstrate higher proficiency in overall writing clarity. This 12-task set offers a structured environment for that development, ensuring students can identify verbals across various sentence positions.