[2236.] (2.) A looser present infinitive is sometimes used with the above verbs, especially in old Latin, generally without a subject accusative. Thus with iūrō by Cato and Plautus, and with minor, proclaim with threats, by Lucretius. Similarly dare pollicentur, 6, 9, 7, they offer to give. reliquōs dēterrērī spērāns, Caes. C. 3, 8, 3, hoping that the rest were scared. spērō nostram amīcitiam nōn egēre testibus, Fam. 2, 2, I trust our friendship needs no witnesses. As possum has no future infinitive, the present of this verb is necessarily used: as, tōtīus Galliae sēsē potīrī posse spērant, 1, 3, 8, they hope to be able to get the control of the whole of Gaul.
[THE GERUNDIVE AND GERUND.]
[2237.] The gerundive is a verbal adjective ([899]). The gerund is a neuter verbal substantive, used only in the oblique cases of the singular. Both gerundives and gerunds express, in a noun form, the uncompleted action of the verb.
[2238.] Gerundives and gerunds, like the English verbal in -ing, were originally neither active nor passive ([288]), but might stand for either an active or a passive. In time a prevailing passive meaning grew up in the gerundive, and a prevailing active meaning in the gerund.
A gerund may be followed by the same case as its verb; but for the gerund of verbs of transitive use, see [2242], [2255], [2259], [2265].
[2239.] Both gerundives and gerunds are modified like verbs, by adverbs, not by adjectives.
[(1.) The Gerundive Construction.]
[2240.] The gerundive expresses, in an adjective form, the uncompleted action of a verb of transitive use exerted on a substantive object, the substantive standing in the case required by the context, and the gerundive agreeing with it.
In this construction, which is called the gerundive construction, the substantive and gerundive blend together in sense like the parts of a compound.