Gerunds, Present Participle and Infinitives

Gerunds are verbals that function as nouns and have an –ing ending.

For example, 'Walking helps clear my mind'.

To identify a gerund, search for a word that looks like a verb, and is in the -ing form but doesn't actually act as a verb.

Present participle, always ending in -ing, is created from the form of a verb used with the verb to be(am, is, are, was, were, been) as an auxiliary verb 

For example 'The other day, I was sitting in the park while my little sister was playing with her toys.'

To identify a present participle, look for the -ing form of a verb.

An infinitive is a verbal consisting of to + a verb, and it acts like a subject, direct object, subject complement, adjective, or adverb in a sentence.

For example, 'She went to play football.'

To identify an infinitive, just search for the to+verb form of the verb.