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The infinitive is often used as the " Citation Form ", as for many languages this is the basic Lemma form of a verb which is usually presented in dictionaries. In language classes where this is the case, students are sometimes taught to think of it as the "name" of the verb.


Infinitives in English


English has three non-finite verbal forms, but by long-standing convention, the term "infinitive" is applied to only one of these. (The other two are the past- and present- Participle forms, where the present-participle form is also the Gerund form.) In English, a verb's infinitive is its unmarked form, such as "be," "do," "have," or "sit," often introduced by the Particle "to." When this particle is absent, the infinitive is said to be a ''bare infinitive''; when it is present, it is generally considered to be a part of the infinitive, then known as the ''full infinitive'' (or ''to-infinitive''), and some grammarians hold that it should not be separated from the main word of the infinitive. (''See'' Split Infinitive .)

The bare infinitive and the full infinitive are not generally interchangeable, but the distinction does not generally affect the meaning of a sentence; rather, certain contexts call almost exclusively for the bare infinitive, and all other contexts call for the to-infinitive.


Uses of the bare infinitive


The bare infinitive is used in a rather limited number of contexts, but some of these are quite common:

  • The bare infinitive is used as the Main Verb after the dummy auxiliary verb ''do'', or any Modal Auxiliary Verb (such as ''will'', ''can'', or ''should''), except that ''ought'' usually takes a to-infinitive. So, "I will/do/can/etc. see it."

  • Several common verbs of perception, including ''see'', ''watch'', ''hear'', ''feel'', and ''sense'' take a direct object and a bare infinitive, where the bare infinitive indicates an action taken by the main verb's direct object. So, "I saw/watched/heard/etc. it happen." (A similar meaning can be effected by using the present participle instead: "I saw/watched/heard/etc. it '''happening'''." The difference is that the former implies that the entirety of the event was perceived, while the latter implies that part of the progress of the event was perceived.)

  • Similarly with several common verbs of permission or causation, including ''make'', ''bid'', ''let'', and ''have''. So, "I made/bade/let/had him do it." (However, ''make'' takes a to-infinitive in the passive voice: "I was made '''to do''' it.")

  • The bare infinitive is the dictionary form of a verb, and is generally the form of a verb that receives a definition; however, the definition itself generally uses a to-infinitive. So, "The word 'amble' means 'to walk slowly.'"

  • The bare infinitive form is also the present Subjunctive form and the Imperative form, although most grammarians do not consider uses of the present subjunctive or imperative to be uses of the bare infinitive.



Uses of the full infinitive


The full infinitive (or to-infinitive) is used in a great many different contexts:

  • Apart from in dictionary lemmata, the full infinitive is the most commonly used Citation Form of the English verb: "How do we conjugate the verb ''to go''?"

  • It can serve as an ordinary noun, expressing its action or state in an abstract, general way. So, "To be is '''to do'''." (A Gerund can also be used for this: "'''Being''' is '''doing'''.")

  • It can serve as an adjective or adverb, expressing purpose or intent. So, "He is to die at noon," or "[In order '''to meditate''', one must free one's mind."

  • In either of the above uses, it can often be given a subject using the preposition ''for'': "For him to fail now would be a great disappointment"; " order '''for you to get there on time''', you'll need to leave now." (The former sentence could also be written, "His failing now would be a great disappointment.")

  • It can be used after many intransitive verbs; in this case, it generally has the subject of the main verb as its implicit subject. So, "I agreed to leave," or "He failed '''to make''' his case." (This may be considered a special case of the noun use above.)

  • It can be used after the direct objects of many transitive verbs; in this case, it generally has the direct object of the main verb as its implicit subject. So, "I convinced him to leave with me," or "He asked her '''to make''' his case on his behalf."

  • As a special case of the above, it can often be used after an intransitive verb, together with a subject using the preposition ''for'': "I arranged for him to accompany me," or "I waited '''for summer to arrive'''."


When the verb is implied, some dialects will reduce the to-infinitive to simply ''to'': "Do I have to?"


The infinitive with auxiliary verbs


  • ''I asked to do not have to'', but rather, either ''I asked not to have to'' or ''I asked to not have to'' (but ''see'' Split Infinitive ). Similarly, one cannot emphasize an infinitive using ''do''; one cannot say, "I hear him do say it all the time."


Nonetheless, the auxiliary verbs ''have'' (used to form the Perfect Aspect ) and ''be'' (used to form the Passive Voice and Continuous Aspect ) both commonly appear in the infinitive: "It's thought to have been a ceremonial site," or "I want '''to be''' doing it already."


Defective verbs


  • ''I want him to can do it'', but rather must say, ''I want him to be able to do it''. The circumlocutions ''to be able to'', ''to have to'' and ''to be going to'' are generally used in these cases.



Germanic languages


The original Germanic suffix of the infinitive was ''-an'', with verbs derived from other words ending in ''-jan'' or ''-janan''. In infinitives also end in ''-en'' ("zeggen" - to say), sometimes used with 'te' similar to English ''to'', e.g. "Het is niet moeilijk te begrijpen" -> "It is not difficult to understand". The few verbs with stems ending in -a have infinitives in -n ("gaan" - to go, "slaan" - to hit). In Scandinavian languages the ''n'' has dropped out and the infinitive suffix has been reduced to ''-e'' or ''-a''. Afrikaans has lost the distinction between the infinitive and present forms of verbs, with the exception of the verbs "wees" (to be), that admits the present form "is", and the verb "hê" (to have), whose present form is "het".


Romance languages


Romance infinitives can be used in much the same way as the infinitive is used in English, and they can also sometimes function as masculine nouns. In follows a similar pattern, with its infinitives ending in ''-are'', ''-ere'', ''-ire'' or ''-urre''.

Formation of the infinitive in Romance languages reflects that of their ancestor, Latin , in which a significant majority of verbs had an infinitive ending with ''-re'' (with a varying vowel, called the ''thematical'', preceding it).

Portuguese (and its sister language, Galician ) is the only Indo-European Language with a personal infinitive, which helps to make infinitive clauses very common. English finite sentences as ''so that you/she/we have/has/have...'' would be translated to ''para teres/ela ter/termos...'' (the Subject is dropped very often). Portuguese personal infinitive has only two proper tenses (present and perfect), but other tenses are replaced by Periphrastic structures. For instance, ''although you sing/sang/will sing'' could be translated to ''apesar de cantares/teres cantado/ires cantar''.


Slavic languages


  • могть → мочь "can".


Some other Slavic Languages have the infinitive typically ending in -ć (e. g. in Polish ), -ť (e. g. in Slovak ), -t (formerly -ti in Czech ). However, Bulgarian and Macedonian have lost the infinitive. Serbo-Croatian officially retains it but the infinitive is dying out in Serbia .


Hebrew language


constructions, as in ''he slept a sleep of peace''. This usage is commonplace in the Bible, but in Modern Hebrew it is restricted to high-flown literary works.

Note, however, that the ''to''-infinitive of Hebrew is not the dictionary form; that is the third person singular past tense.


Finnish language

To form the first infinitive, the strong form of the root (without Consonant Gradation or epenthetic 'e') is used, and these changes occur:
# the root is suffixed with ''-ta/-tä'' according to Vowel Harmony
# consonant elision takes place if applicable, e.g. ''juoks+ta'' → ''juosta''
# assimilation of clusters violating sonority hierarchy if applicable, e.g. ''nuol+ta'' → ''nuolla'', ''sur+ta'' → ''surra''
# 't' weakens to 'd' after diphthongs, e.g. ''juo+ta'' → ''juoda''
# 't' elides if intervocalic, e.g. ''kirjoitta+ta'' → ''kirjoittaa''

As such, it is inconvenient for dictionary use, because the imperative would be closer to the root word. Nevertheless, dictionaries use the first infinitive.

There are four other infinitives, which create a noun-, or adverb-like word from the verb. For example, the third infinitive is ''-ma/-mä'', which creates an adjective-like word like "written" from "write": ''kirjoita-'' becomes ''kirjoittama''.


Translation to languages without an infinitive


In languages without an infinitive, the infinitive is translated either as a ''that''-clause or as a Verbal Noun . For example, in Literary Arabic the sentence "I want to write a book" is translated as either ''urīdu an aktuba kitāban'' (literally "I want that I should write a book", with a verb in the Subjunctive Mood ) or ''urīdu kitābata kitābin'' (literally "I want the writing of a book", with the ''masdar'' or verbal noun), and in Demotic Arabic ''biddi aktob iktāb'' (subordinate clause with verb in subjunctive). Similarly, the modern Greek for "I want to write", as opposed to the ancient Greek θέλω γραφεῖν with the infinitive, is θέλω να γράψω, which is literally "I want that I should write".

Even in languages that have infinitives, similar constructions are sometimes necessary where English would allow the infinitive. For example, in French the sentence "I want you to come" translates to ''Je veux que vous veniez'' (literally "I want that you come", with ''come'' being in the subjunctive mood). However, "I want to come" is simply ''Je veux venir'', using the infinitive, just as in English.


See also