What are the verbals in these sentences and are they gerunds or participles?

The dog reacted by racing around the corner, dashing across the kitchen, and skidding to a stop.

In the finished commercial, the chuck wagon disappears right through the cabinet door.

Racing, dashing, skidding are all gerunds -- objects of the preposition "by."

What do you think "finished" is?

I think finished is a verbal and a gerund because you can replace it with a noun?

What about this one?
The trainer aroused yearning in the dog by hiding a squeaky toy in a closet.

yearning a gerund and hiding a gerund?

With what noun would you replace "finished?"

Your last answers are correct. Both are gerunds.

Study this site.

http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/gerund.htm

Thanks does help. Confused still with

In the finished commercial, the chuck wagon disappears right through the cabinet door.

In is a preposition so gerund? or describes commercial so participle?

You missed an important fact about gerunds. Please read the site I posted for you.

To identify the verbals in these sentences and determine whether they are gerunds or participles, we need to understand the characteristics of each.

1. A verbal is a verb form that functions as a noun, adjective, or adverb. There are three types of verbals: gerunds, participles, and infinitives.

2. A gerund is a verbal that ends in -ing and functions as a noun. Gerunds can be the subject of a sentence, an object of a verb, an object of a preposition, or part of a gerund phrase.

3. A participle is a verbal that also ends in -ing (present participle) or -ed, -d, -en, -t (past participle). Participles function as adjectives and modify nouns or pronouns in the sentence.

Now let's analyze the sentences:

Sentence 1: "The dog reacted by racing around the corner, dashing across the kitchen, and skidding to a stop."

- Verbals: racing, dashing, skidding
- Analysis: These verbals end in -ing, making them participles. They function as adjectives, modifying the noun "dog" to describe how it reacted.

Sentence 2: "In the finished commercial, the chuck wagon disappears right through the cabinet door."

- Verbal: finished
- Analysis: This verbal ends in -ed, indicating it is a past participle. It functions as an adjective, modifying the noun "commercial" to describe its state or condition.

To summarize, in the first sentence, the verbals are gerunds if they function as nouns, but since they are used as adjectives to modify the noun "dog," they are participles. In the second sentence, there is only one verbal "finished," which is a past participle used as an adjective to modify the noun "commercial."