III. Инфинитивная конструкция с предлогом for (The For – to – Infinitive Construction)

В этой конструкции перед существительным или местоимением находится предлог for. При переводе на русский язык используется или придаточное предложение или инфинитив.

It's easy for me to answer this question. Мне легко ответить на этот вопрос.

It will be very pleasant for us to spend a week in England. На будет очень приятно провести неделю в Англии.

There was nothing else for me to say. Мне больше нечего было сказать.

It is for you to decide. Вам решать.

Here are some books for you to read. Вот несколько книг для вашего чтения (вам почитать).

Grammar reference advanced

The Infinitive is a non-finite form of the verb which names a process in a most general way.

In common with other non-finite forms of the verb, the Infinitive has a double nature: it combines verbal and noun features.

The verbal features of the Infinitive are morphological and syntactical.

1. Мorphological: the Infinitive has the verb categories of voice, correlation 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 did not intend to keep me along, she said. (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 I happened to be bringing him some of the books borrowed from him two days before. (continuous)

2. Syntactical: the Infinitive possesses the verb combinability:

1. it takes an object in the same way as the corresponding finite verbs do;

2. it takes a predicative if it happens to be a link verb;

3. it is modified by adverbials in the same way as finite verbs.

Infinitive

1. To tell him about it the same night was out of the question.

She didn’t mean to depend on her father.

2. She wanted to be a teacher.

I don’t want to look pale tonight.

c) To draw his attention I had to speak very loudly.

Finite verb

She told me about it only yesterday.

You see, I depend on his word only.

He was a teacher of French.

She looked pale and haggard.

He spoke loudly, turning his head from side to side.

The nominal features of the Infinitive are only syntactical: it performs almost all the syntactical functions of the noun (subject, object, predicative, attribute, adverbial modifier):

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 roses. (adverbial modifier)

The Grammatical Categories of the Infinitive

The system of grammatical categories of the Infinitive is shown in the table below:

Correlation	Aspect Voice	Active	Passive
Non-Perfect	Common	to go to take	- to be taken
	Continuous	to be going to be taking	-
Perfect	Common	to have gone to have taken	- to have been taken
	Continuous	to have been going to have been taking	- -