The infinitive Complexes and phrases

The Infinitive usually refers to the subject of the sentence:

• We were made to learn fifty new words every week.

• My secretary has threatened to leave.

But when the infinitive acquires its own subject, different from that in the sentence it is used in, it forms a semi-predicative construction.

Thus, the infinitive can refer to the object in a sentence as its subject (the Complex Object construction or prepositional phrase):

• They made him tell the truth.

• Her parents didn’t want her to marry him.

• The animals all depend on her to feed them.

It can also follow a for-phrase or of-phrase and form a semi-predicative construction in which these prepositional phrases become a secondary subject:

• All I want is for you to be happy.

• It’s wrong of your friend to suggest it.

The complex object

The Infinitive in the Complex Object construction refers to the object that becomes the secondary subject in the sentence while the Infinitive describes its action or state as the secondary predicate.

Transitive verbs with the following senses can be used in the Complex Object construction:

1. Verbs of sense perception and feeling

The bare infinitive is used after verbs of sense perception and feeling (to see, hear, watch, notice, feel, have, etc.):

• I suddenly felt something brush against my arm.

• I saw you put the key in your pocket.

• He heard the door slam shut.

• Jill watched the children build sandcastles.

• It’s lovely to have people smile at you in the street.

2. Verbs of mental perception and thinking

The to-infinitive is used after verbs of mental perception and thinking (to think, assume, consider, believe, feel, suppose, understand, expect, imagine, know, etc.):

• I understood him to say that he would cooperate (fml).

• We were expecting the letter to arrive by now.

3. Verbs of wish and intention

The to-infinitive is used after verbs of wish and intention (to want, wish,

like, hate, intend, mean, prefer, etc.):

• Do you wish me to leave now?

• I never intended it to turn out like that.

• I’d prefer you to drive, if you don’t mind.

4. Verbs of compulsion, order and permission

The bare Infinitive is used after the verbs ‘make’, ‘have’ and ‘let’:

• The pepper in the food made me sneeze.

• I won’t have you tell me what to do.

The to-infinitive is used after the verbs ‘to command, compel, get, cause, force, forbid, instruct, urge, order, bid, allow, permit, etc.’:

• Greenhouse gases are widely believed to be causing the earth’s atmosphere to heat up.

• We sinners drank and gambled and cursed and lied because we allowed ourselves to be separated from God.

5. Verbs of saying

The to-infinitive is used after ‘advise, ask, beg, persuade, recommend, remind, request, teach, tell, tempt, warn, to invite, name, call, declare, announce, encourage, get, etc.’:

• I strongly advise you not to do this.

• But Leon de Rosay was not in his salon; he was out of town, the directrice told her. ‘Then get him to ring me, will you, please?’ said Edwina. “It’s really very, very urgent indeed. Don’t forget.’.

• Her evidence revealed the young men to be innocent.

After the verb ‘have’ in the meaning ‘to tell somebody to do something’ the infinitive is used without ‘to’:

• I’ll have the porter bring your luggage up right away.

• His eyes brightened and he smiled. “I suppose I could have the men tie you up and chuck you in the river.”

The verb ‘suggest’ is not used in the Complex Object construction:

• I would suggest that you see your doctor about this.

The Use of the Infinitive Forms in the Complex Object Construction

The Simple Infinitive is common in the complex object construction. It expresses an action either following that of the predicate verb or simultaneous with it:

• I just want you to be happy.

• You’d better not let Dad hear you say that.

• I simply ask you now not to be seduced by creative storytelling, nice as it is.

The Infinitive used after the verbs of sense perception and sometimes order cannot take a Passive form, the verb ‘be’ being omitted. However, a passive infinitive with the verb ‘get’ seems rarely possible:

• For many hours a day I chopped cotton. All summer we chopped. By late August we were ready to pick. And now, in mid-October, we were watching it get swept away. All the labor, the sweat, all the money invested in seed, all the hopes and plans, everything was now being lost to the backwaters of the St. Francis River.

The passive infinitive is quite usual after other semantic groups of verbs (let, allow, etc.):

• I didn’t really want to go but I allowed myself to be persuaded.

• He let it be known during dinner, that he was on the lookout for a wife.

In negative sentences ‘not’ is put before the infinitive:

• Doctors advised him not to play for three weeks.

The Infinitive in the Complex object construction can be preceded by an

interrogative pronoun as well as ‘there:

• She knew the hotel well and she had money, so she would have told them where to put her. A nice southeast corner suite.

• I want there to be no mistake.

The Continuous and Perfect forms of the Infinitive are possible after some verbs, especially verbs of mental perception, but are not very common:

• I believe him to have done nothing but harm.

• Please let me be imagining that horribly familiar voice.

• He is a fine reader, a real writer’s editor in what I imagine the old tradition to have been, and I look forward to working with him into the future.

The Infinitive in the Complex Object construction expresses a complete or repeated action:

• I saw you put the key in your pocket.

• From the hill you can watch the planes take off.

• The headmaster prefers them to act plays they have written themselves.

However, the infinitive can express an unfinished or ongoing action if the predicate of a sentence is in a continuous form:

• After supper I was watching my father patch an inner tube from our tractor when Tally appeared in the distance.

Or, after the verb in the form of the present participle:

• Pappy and my father were on the front porch, sipping coffee and watching the rain dwindle down.

Also, when the unfinished or ongoing character of an action expressed by the infinitive is lexically determined by the continuous character of a finite verb or contextual conditions:

• He slept, and awoke later into the silence of the smallest hours, and sat at the window and watched the city sleep.

• Charlie lit a cigar and exhaled and watched the smoke rise.

• Gran was gathering supplies – rubbing alcohol, painkillers, bottles of nasty remedies that would make Libby forget about childbirthing. She was arranging her arsenal on the kitchen table, and I had never seen her move so fast.