In OE there were two non-finite forms of the verb: the Infinitive and the Participle. In many respects they were closer to the nouns and adjectives than to the finite verb: their nominal features were far more obvious than their verbal features, especially at the morphological level. Like finite forms they could take direct objects and be modified by adverbs. Infinitive had no verbal grammatical categories. Being a verbal noun by origin, it had a sort of reduced case-system: two forms which roughly corresponded to the Nom. And the Dat. Cases of nouns. Like the Dat. Case of nouns the inflected Infinitive with the preposition to could be used to indicate the direction or purpose of an action. The uninflected Infinitive was used in verb phrases with modal verbs or other verbs of incomplete predication. The Participle was a kind of verbal adjective which was characterized not only by nominal nut also by certain verbal features. Participle 1 was opposed to Participle 2 through voice and tense distinctions: it was active and expressed present or simultaneous processes and qualities, while
P2 expressed states and qualities resulting from past action and was contrasted to P1 as passive to active, if the verb was transitive. P2 of intransitive had an active meaning. Participles were employed predicatively and attributively like adjectives and shared their grammatical categories: they were declined as weak and strong and agreed with nouns in number, gender and case. ME. The development of analytical forms and new grammatical categories has transformed the verbals. Compound forms of the Infinitive appeared (passive Inf, perfect Inf, cont and perf cont). Part 1 perf, non-perf, pass and active. Compound forms of the ing form used in the functions of a noun, that is the Gerund, were the last to appear.
