4. Verbals ( Infinitive. Gerund. Participle I, II.)

Verbals are words that seem to carry the idea of action or being but do not function as a true verb. They are sometimes called "nonfinite" (unfinished or incomplete) verbs. Because time is involved with all verb forms, whether finite or nonfinite, however, following a logical Tense Sequence is important. Verbals are frequently accompanied by other, related words in what is called a verbal phrase.

Infinitive.

An infinitive is a verbal consisting of the word to plus a verb (in its simplest "stem" form) and functioning as a noun, adjective, or adverb. The term verbal indicates that an infinitive, like the other two kinds of verbals, is based on a verb and therefore expresses action or a state of being. However, the infinitive may function as a subject, direct object, part of a compound verbal predicate, attribute, or adverbial modifier in a sentence. Although an infinitive is easy to locate because of the to + verb form, deciding what function it has in a sentence can sometimes be confusing.

• To wait seemed foolish when decisive action was required. (subject)

• Everyone wanted to go. (direct object)

• His ambition is to fly. (part of a compound verbal predicate)

• He lacked the strength to resist. (attribute)

• We must study to learn. (adverbial modifier)

Punctuation: If the infinitive is used as an adverb and is the beginning phrase in a sentence, it should be set off with a comma; otherwise, no punctuation is needed for an infinitive phrase.

• To buy a basket of flowers, John had to spend his last dollar.

• To improve your writing, you must consider your purpose and audience.

1. Form. The infinitive is the base form of a verb. It may be preceded by 'to' (the to-infinitive) or stand alone (the base or zero infinitive).

NOTE: as with the present infinitive, there are situations where the to is omitted, e.g. after most modal auxiliaries.

The perfect infinitive:

to have + past participle, e.g. to have broken, to have seen, to have saved.

This form is most commonly found in Type 3 conditional sentences, using the conditional perfect, e.g. If I had known you were coming I would have baked a cake.

Examples:

• Someone must have broken the window and climbed in.

• I would like to have seen the Taj Mahal when I was in India.

• He pretended to have seen the film.

• If I'd seen the ball I would have caught it.

The continuous infinitive:

to be + present participle, e.g.to be swimming, to be joking, to be waiting

Examples:

• I'd really like to be swimming in a nice cool pool right now.

• You must be joking!

• I happened to be waiting for the bus when the accident happened.

The perfect continuous infinitive:

to have been + present participle

Examples:

to have been crying to have been waiting to have been painting

• The woman seemed to have been crying.

• You must have been waiting for hours!

• He pretended to have been painting all day.

The passive infinitive:

to be + past participle, e.g. to be given, to be shut, to be opened

Examples:

• I am expecting to be given a pay-rise next month.

• These doors should be shut.

• This window ought to be opened.

Forms of the infinitive
	Active	Passive
Indefinite	to write	to be written
Continuous	to be writing	-----------------------------
Perfect	to have written	to have been written
Perfect Continuous	to have been writing	-----------------------------