The Infinitive

The Infinitive is a non-finite form of the verb which names a process in a most general way. As such, it is naturally treated as the initial form of the verb, which represents the verb in dictionaries (much in the same way as the common case singular represents the noun).

In all its cases its form and functions the infinitive has a special marker the particle to.

The particle to is generally used with the infinitive stem and so closely connected with it that does not commonly allow any words to put itself and the stem. Occasionally, however, an adverb or particle may be inserted between them.

She does not want to even see me once more.

The infinitive thus used is called the split infinitive, and is acceptable only to give special emphasis to the verb.

Although the particle to is very closely connected with the infinitive, sometimes the bare infinitive stem is used. The cases where the infinitive loses its marker are very few in number.

The use of the Infinitive without the Particle to

(Bare Infinitive)

	Words and phrases followed by a bare infinitive	Bare infinitive	The rest of the sentence
I They	Auxiliary verbs: do not will	like see	jogging you tomorrow.
You I You	Modal verbs: (except ought to, have to,) cannot must need not	play go worry	football in the street There tomorrow
She You	Modal expressions: had better would rather would sooner	die come	than come back at once
I He	Verbs of sense perception: (see, watch, observe, notice,hear,listen to, feel, etc) felt somebody heard the door	touch close	me
What	Verbs of inducement: (let, make,have, bid) let me makes you	help think	you so
Did you	Phrases with but: cannot but, do anything but, do nothing but couldn’t but do anything but	ask	questions?
	Why-not sentences: Why not	begin	at once?

Like other non-finite forms of the verb the infinitive has a double nature: it combines verbal features with those of the noun.

The verbal features of the infinitive are of two kinds: morphological and syntactical.

Morphological: the infinitive has the verb categories of voice and aspect:

The evening is the time to praise the day.(active)

To be praised for what one has not done was bad enough.(passive)

She didn’t intend to keep me long.(non-perfect)

I am so distressed to have kept you waiting.(perfect)

She promised to bring the picture down in the course of ten minutes.(common)

At that time u happened to be bringing him some of the books borrowed from him two days before.(continuous)

Syntactical: the infinitive possesses the verb combinability:

ü It takes an object in the same way as the corresponding finite verbs do;

ü It takes a predicate if it happens to be a link verb;

ü It is modified by adverbials in the same way as finite verbs:

The nominal features of the infinitive are revealed only in its function:

To understand is to forgive. (subject,predicative)

That’s what I wanted to know. (object)

I saw the chance to escape into the garden.(attribute)

I merely came back to water the flowers(adverbial modifier of purpose)

The Grammatical Categories of the Infinitive

The system of grammatical categories of the infinitive is shown in the table bellow

Voice Aspect	Active	Passive
Non-perfect	Common	to go to take	------- to be taken
Continuous	to be going to be taking	------- (to be being taken)
Perfect	Common	to have gone to have taken	------- to have been taken
Continuous	to have been going to have been taking	-------   -------

It is seen from the table, that the passive voice is found only with transitive verbs and there are no perfect continuous forms in the passive voice. As for the non-perfect continuous passive, forms similar to the one in brackets do sometimes occur, although they are exceptionally rare.

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