I trust them to solve the problem.

I encouraged her to tell everything.

b). May follow directly the verb: to afford, to agree, to aim, to arrange, to ask, to attempt, to beg, to care, to claim, to decide, to demand, to deserve, to desire, to fight, to forget, to grow, to help, to hesitate, to learn, to offer, to plan, to prepare, to pretend, to promise, to refuse, to resolve, to scorn (= to refuse), to seek, to struggle, to survive (= to live), to swear, to threaten, to vow, to wait.

e. g. He refused me to help in solving the problem.

c). Sometimes the infinitive in the function of the direct object may be introduced by the following words: who, what, which, why, when, where, how.

e. g. He (Man) learned how to use the stone instruments, how to use fire, how to build and how to bring up children. And that was the beginning of civilisation.

Note 1: Special attention should be paid to the verbs to allow, to order, to permit. Structures like ‘It allows to make the following conclusions’ are incorrect. If there is no notional object, a formal one should be used :

e. g. It allows us/one to make the following conclusions.

Note 2: The infinitive used as an object can be preceded by the introductory object it which is nit rendered into Russian: e. g. He found it utterly impossible to leave the spot.

8. As an attribute :

When used as an attribute the infinitive immediately follows the word it modifies.

The use of the infinitive as an attribute is far more extensive in English than in Russian: in Russian it modifies only abstract nouns(e. g. Ваше желание учиться–– велико.) whereas in English it modifies:

a). Its head-noun (class or abstract):

e. g. Plow deep while others sleep. And you shall have corn to sell and to keep.

b). Noun equivalents (indefinite pronouns):

e. g. A man who listens because he has nothing to say can hardly be a source of inspiration. (Agnes Repplier)

c). Ordinal numerals + the substantivized adjective last:

e. g. He was the last to find that Jane had a special talent

for music.

Jane was the last to understand how dangerous it was.

He was the first to come.

d). Pronominal expressions of quantity: much, enough, a lot of, no more, plenty of.

e. g. We have got enough to do in our agency. We don’t look

for the lost animals. We search only people.

e). Pronominal word ‘one’:

e. g. He was the one to know Scarlet better than she (Scarlet)

did herself.

Note 1 : The infinitive used as an attribute often has a modal significance–– it expresses an action thought of as obligatory or possible:

e. g. I have got my wife and a little son to look after. (о которых я должен позаботиться)

Note 2 : The passive infinitive is seldom used in the attributive function. That is why we say ‘it is a book to read’ and not ‘to be read’.

Exceptions: there is nothing to be done about and nothing to do;

There is something to be seen, to be said and something to see, to say.

Note 3 : The attributive infinitive besides naming an action may express a meaning corresponding to the Russian надо, можно, следует.

e. g.

It is the only thing to do. Это единственное, что можно сделать. He is not the man to do it. Он не тот, кто может сделать это.