My father enjoys FISHING on the Gulf of Mexico.

Question

Is FISHING a VERB or VERBAL

Answer 1

Fishing would be a verbal in this sentence.

Answer 2

There is more than one kind of verbal. There are verbal nouns, called gerunds and infinitives, and verbal adjectives, called participles. Your example, Lucy, contains a gerund, a verbal noun, which is the direct object of the finite verb 'enjoys'. Because infinitives are also verbal nouns, a writer could exchange an infinitive for a gerund: "My father likes to fish on the Gulf of Mexico."