1. Verbal nouns in -ing may take a direct or an indirect object if their meaning allows.
- Digging gold seems to the uninitiated like finding buried treasure.
- Lending him money is useless; it merely fosters his unthrifty habits. [Here the noun lending, which is the simple subject of the sentence, takes both a direct object (money) and an indirect object (him), precisely as the verb lend might do.]
2. A verbal noun in -ing may take an adverbial modifier.
Speaking extemporaneously is good practice. [Here the verbal noun speaking is the simple subject; but it is modified by the adverb extemporaneously, precisely as if it were a verb.]
But verbal nouns in -ing, like other nouns, may be modified by adjectives.
Extemporaneous speaking is good practice.
3. To the verbal nouns being and having, past participles may be attached, so as to give the effect of voice and tense.
- After being instructed in my duties, I was ordered to wait on the king.
- There were grave doubts expressed as to his having seen the mastodon.
- After having been treated in so harsh a fashion, I had no wish to repeat the interview.
Such expressions are verbal noun-phrases.
350. Verbal nouns in -ing are similar in some of their constructions to infinitives used as nouns ([p. 135]).