- •The infinitive
- •The Use of the Particle ‘to’ with the Infinitive
- •The use of the particle ‘to’ without an infinitive
- •The nominal and verbal character of the infinitive
- •The use of tense and voice forms of the infinitive
- •Passive or active forms of the infinitive
- •Functions of the infinitive in the sentence
- •The Adverbial Modifier
- •The infinitive Complexes and phrases
- •The complex object
- •I suddenly felt something brush against my arm.
- •The complex subject
The infinitive
The structural mark of the infinitive is the particle ‘to’. It can be omitted depending on the type of infinitive combination.
The Use of the Particle ‘to’ with the Infinitive
The infinitive is usually used with the particle ‘to’ when it follows a notional verb in the finite form:
He wants to be an actor.
He got his sister to help him with his homework.
The bare infinitive (the infinitive without ‘to’) is used:
after auxiliary verbs:
The orchestra will be conducted by David Norton.
Don’t be silly.
after modal verbs (except for ‘ought’):
I can’t stand here talking to you all day – I have work to do.
No one dared speak. He daren’t lie.
after a few notional verbs (to help, to bid, to know):
Learners often seek ‘rules’ to help them decide where to put the clause within the sentence.
She bade me come in (arch or fml use)
I’ve never known it snow in July before (mostly in the perfect tenses, sometimes in the past tenses).
after a few modal phrases (had better, had best, would rather, had or would sooner, cannot (help) but, do (nothing) but, can but):
You’d better be careful. (spoken use)
She heard his voice over and over again, saying, ‘I’d rather go back to that school than you get divorced,’ and felt extremely sick.
‘Do you want to go out to eat?’ – I’d sooner stay in. (spoken use)
We can but guess at the extent of the problem. (formal use)
I couldn’t help but think of how sad it would be to become a Latcher, to be born into that small, dirty house with a pack of other kids.
after verbs of sense perception and compulsion (see, hear, feel, etc.; have, make, let) in the Complex Object construction:
I’ll have someone clean out your room.
Let me buy you a drink. What’ll you have?
I suddenly felt something brush against my arm.
after ‘why’, ‘why not’ and ‘how’ in questions:
We can start now, so why wait? Why listen to him? (used to suggest that something is unacceptable or unnecessary)
Why not stay for lunch? (used for making a suggestion in spoken English).
How come you’re not at work today?
after the link verb ‘be’ (the use of the bare infinitive seems to depend on the preceding subject and the type of sentence it is used in):
All you need to do is take a few bites.
What you should do is try to open it with a knife.
after another infinitive in a coordinate structure (if there is no opposition between the two infinitives):
She likes to dance and sing. But: To be or not to be – that is the question.
after the verb ‘do’ in emphatic sentences:
Only after two years did he begin to see the results of his work.
Do shut up! Do let’s get a taxi.
I had said he would come down and come down he did.
after some verbs in a few idiomatic phrases such as ‘hear tell, make believe, make do, gonna, etc.’:
The children like to make believe that they live in a castle (meaning: pretend).
There wasn’t much food, but we made do (meaning: use what is available).
I’ve often heard tell of such things (meaning: hear people talking).
I’m gonna need some help.
after the prepositions ‘except, than and rather than’ (the use of the bare infinitive seems optional):
He’s done nothing all day except sit around and watch television. Also: He didn’t stop working all morning, except to make a cup of coffee at around 11.00.
Most criminals would rather go to prison than meet their victims. Also: You should know better than to behave like that.
It would be better to make a decision now, rather than leave it until later. Also: I believe it is important to invest in new machinery rather than to increase wages.
12. after ‘and’ in verbal phrases (try and…, come and…, go and…, wait and…, etc.). The two infinitives go together in fixed word order while ‘and’ replaces ‘to’ so as to express purpose:
Why didn’t they go and watch the sack races? (Why didn’t they go to watch the sack races?)
In those strangled moments, she came. She did nothing but appear and watch.
13. after the verbs ‘come’ and ‘go’ in American English:
“Can you come move these, please?” Eleanor said. “Charlie’s blocked the way.”
Why wouldn’t they come help?
Go eat your breakfast. We have a busy day.