The Infinitive as Object

The infinitive can have the function of object after verbs, adjectives, adjectivized participles and statives.

I. After verbs the infinitive may be either the only object of a verb or one of two objects.

1. Verbs that take only one object are: to agree, to arrange, to attempt, to care (to like), to choose, to claim, to consent, to decide, to deserve, to determine, to expect, to fail, to fear, to forget, to hesitate, to hope, to intend, to learn, to like, to long, to love, to manage, to mean, to neglect, to omit, to plan, to prefer, to pretend, to refuse, to regret, to remember, to swear, to tend.

She agreed to come at ten.

He planned to spend the day in town.

You'll soon learn to read, sonny.

These verbs are generally used with the non-perfect forms of the infinitive.

Some of them, however, also occur with perfect forms. Among them two groups of verbs can be distinguished:

a) the. verbs to claim, to fail, to forget, to hate, to like, to omit, to regret, to remember, to swear, with which the perfect infinitive expresses priority proper, that is actions which actually take place or are supposed to take place before the action of the finite verb:

I regret to have said it to her.

I remembered to have met him once.

She claims to have seen him before

Note: In such structures the finite verb can take the form of any tense.

b) the verbs to attempt, to expect, to hope, to intend, to mean, to plan, to try, which add to the perfect infinitive a modal colouring showing that the action of the infinitive was not fulfilled:

I hoped to have found him at home.

He intended to have reached the coast long before.

Note: In these structures the finite verb can be used only in the past tense.

Besides the above-mentioned verbs there are also some rather common phrases used with the infinitive-object. They are the phrases can afford, can bear in the negative or interrogative and such phrases as to make sure, to make up one’s mind, to take care, to take the trouble.

Can you afford to buy it yourself?

I can’t bear to hear it again.

At last he made up his mind to answer Sybil’s letter.

2. Verbs that has two objects, the first of which is a noun or a pronoun and the second an infinitive. These are the verbs of inducement:

to advise	to direct	to induce	to permit
to allow	to encourage	to instruct	to persuade
to ask	to forbid	to invite	to recommend
to beg	to force	to leave	to request
to cause	to have	to let	to require
to command	to impel	to make	to tell
to compel	to implore	to order	to urge

Tell him to hurry. He asked her to keep an eye on the clock. What would you recommend me to do?

With all these verbs except to have, to let and to make, the infinitive is used with the particle to. After to have, to let and to make it loses the particle.

She’ll have you do it at once. Don’t let it bother you. Soon she made me see where I was wrong.

The first of the two objects, which is a noun in the common case or a pronoun in the objective case, denotes a person (or, very seldom, a non-person) who is to perform the required action expressed by the infinitive.

Note: The verb to help can be used either with one or with two objects:

She helped to pack. She helped me to make up my mind.

In either case the infinitive can be used with or without to.

And she actually helped find it. I’ll help you do it.

With some verbs the function of object may be performed by a conjunctive infinitive phrase. These verbs are very few in number and fall into two groups:

a) Verbs that can take either an infinitive or an infinitive conjunctive phrase as their object. These are: to advise, to decide, to forget, to learn, to remember.

They advised me to go on .

He decided to begin at once.

I forgot to tell you about the last incident.

He advised me at last how to settle the matter.

He could not decide whether to come at all.

I forgot how to do it.

b) Verbs that can take only a conjunctive infinitive phrase as their object: to know, to show, to wonder.

She did not know what to say.

I know well enough where to stop.

Will you show me how to do it?

II. After certain adjectives (adjectivized participles), mostly used as predicatives. Semantically and structurally these fall into two groups.

1. The, most frequent of the first group are; anxious, apt, bound, careful, curious, determined, difficult, eager, easy, entitled, fit, free, hard, impatient, inclined, interested, keen, liable, powerless, prepared, quick, ready, reluctant, resolved, set, slow, worthy.

She's determined to go on.

I am powerless to do anything.

He’s fully prepared to meet them any time they choose.

I was so impatient to start.

When used with these adjectives, the infinitive denotes actions either simultaneous with or posterior to the states expressed by the predicates, and cannot therefore be used in perfect forms.

2. The most frequent adjectives (adjectivized participles) of the second group are: amused, annoyed, astonished, delighted,-distressedfrightened, furious, glad, grateful, happy, horrified, pleased, proud, puzzled,relieved, scared, sorry, surprised, thankful, touched.

He was amused to hear it.

I'm delighted to see you again, darling.

She is proud to have grown such a son.

Mother was furious to see them together again.

These adjectives and participles express certain psychological states which are the result of the action of the infinitive object, so the latter therefore always denotes an action slightly preceding the state expressed by the predicate, and can have both non-perfect and perfect forms. The non-perfect forms are used to express immediate priority, that is, an action immediately preceding the state:

I'm glad to see you (I see you and this makes me glad).

The perfect forms are used to show that there is a gap between the action and the resulting state.

I am glad to have seen you (I have seen you and this makes me . glad).

III. After certain statives denoting psychological states, such as afraid, agog, ashamed:

I’d be afraid to step inside a house that Rupert had designed all by himself.

Mary herself was agog to know what was going on.

In such cases the infinitive points out the source of the state expressed by the stative.