G ERUNDS AND INFINITIVES: THEIR NOUN ROLES

Both gerunds and infinitives can be
nouns, which means they can do just about anything that a noun can do. Although they name things, like other nouns, they normally name activities rather than people or objects.
Here are five noun-uses of gerunds and infinitives (and one additional non-noun use, the adjective complement, that we throw in
here, free of charge). Gerunds and infintives can both function as the subject of a sentence:
a. Playing basketball takes up too much of her
time.
b. To play basketball for UConn is her favorite
fantasy.
It is not impossible for an infinitive to
appear at the beginning of a sentence as the subject (as in Ib), but it is more common for an infinitive to appear as a
Subject Complement:
a. Her favorite fantasy is to play basketball for UConn.
The gerund can also play this role:
b. Her favorite fantasy is playing basketball for UConn.
Both of these verbal forms can further identify a noun when they play the role of Noun Complement and Appositive:
a. Her desire to play basketball for UConn became an obsession.
b. I could never understand her desire to play basketball for UConn.
c. Her one burning desire in life, playing basketball for UConn, seemed a goal within reach.
The infinitive is often a complement used to help define an abstract noun. Here is a very partial list of abstract nouns, enough to suggest their nature. Try following these adjectives with an infinitive phrase (their desire to play in the championship game, a motivation to pass all their courses, her permission to stay up late, a gentle reminder to do your work) to see how the phrase modifies and focuses the noun.