Sister Ruth, my first grade teacher, taught us that verbs were “action words”. It made sense then and it makes sense now though she may have over-simplified for our benefit. In fact, verbs are not always action words. Some verbs can be dynamic (action verbs) but others are static (non-action verbs). Moreover, verbs are only one type of action word. There are others. Look at the sentences below and see if you can identify the other types of action words.

Well, all the sentences use the word dance in one way or another, right? But are those all verbs? Are any of them verbs? Hmmm. Let’s take a look at the image below to figure this out.

Clearly, dance is the base form of the verb and danced is the past tense form of the same verb. But what about dancing and to dance? And why are there two occasions of dance and two occasions of danced?

As you can see, dancing is a gerund and dancing is a present participle.

■In example number 1 above dancing is a gerund. Why? It is because here dancing is used as a noun. A person could say, “Disneyland is fun”, “English is fun” or “parties are fun”, right? All, like dancing here, function as nouns.
■However, in example 2 above dancing, a present participle, is used as an adjective. It describes, as would any adjective, the noun, Queen. We could easily say “beautiful queen”, “intelligent queen” or “lazy queen”. Dancing here works the same way as beautiful, intelligent or lazy. All describe the noun Queen.
■Number 3 above might seem a little tricky but think about this question: Which woman mourned the loss of her husband? Was it the old woman? Was it the rich woman? No. It was the woman who was dancing, that is, the dancing woman. So, we have a present participle used as an adjective here.

Summary:
Dancing is called a gerund and functions as a noun.
Dancing is called a present participle and functions as an adjective.

As for the two instances of danced, one is the verb dance in the past tense while the other is a past participle. Present participles end in –ing. With regular verbs past participles end in –ed. Note that the past participle is used with the perfective aspect.

For example: "Fabiana has danced with an Uber driver."

Here are more examples.
1. Len has danced in Roppongi before. (Present Perfect)
2. Diogo had left the school before Tatiane did. (Past Perfect)
3. Eleazar will have eaten all the food before Susan returns home. (Future Perfect)

On the other hand, the continuous aspect is expressed by the present participle.
1. Haruhisa is eating Ester’s lunch. (Present Continuous)
2. Ester was drinking Haruhisa’s water yesterday. (Past Continuous)
3. Eleazar will be dancing with Susan soon. (Future Continuous)

Let’s look now at the last type of verbal, the infinitive. There are two forms. The first is the same as the base form of the verb and is called a bare infinitive because there is no infinitive marker “to”. The second form is the complete infinitive with the marker “to” used to introduce it. Please do not confuse the infinitive marker “to” with the preposition “to”. Compare the two words in the following sentence:

Maria Jose went to the club to dance the night away.

“To the club” is a prepositional phrase, but “to dance” is an infinitive. In fact, “to dance the night away” is an infinitive phrase.

Now, let’s prove that both dance and to dance are different forms of the same infinitive. Consider the following sentences in direct and reported speech.

John Wayne: “Dance, cowboy!” This is direct speech. We use the bare infinitive in the imperative mood.

Ester: John Wayne told the cowboy to dance. This is reported speech.

English grammar requires that an imperative be reported using a complete infinitive. Here are a couple more examples.

1. Police: “Put your hands up!”
Abby: The police ordered Eleazar to put his hands up.
2. Mom: “Wash your hands before you come to the table.”
Aki: Your mom told you to wash your hands before you come to the table.

Finally, look at the example sentences 4 and 5 above. Number four uses the bare infinitive in direct speech while number 5 reports using the complete infinitive.