Infinitives

            The third major type of verbal is an infinitive.  An infinitive is simply the word “to” plus a verb that works as a noun, adjective, or adverb.  Don’t be tricked though, because unlike other verbals, it can act like subject, direct object, subject complement, adjective, or adverb in a sentence.  Infinitives may be the easiest of the three verbals to identify because of the to plus the verb form. 

The tricky part to infinitives is discovering what function they take on.  Here are some different examples.

            *To ask seemed like the right thing to do considering I didn’t know.  (subject.)

            *Everyone wanted to play.  (direct object)

            *His goal in life is to win.  (subject complement)

            *She lacked the ambition to accept.  (adjective)

            *We must practice to compete.  (adverb)

WARNING!!!      Don’t confuse an infinitive with a prepositional phrase beginning

                             with to.

  Examples of Prepositional Phrases:  to her, to the team, to the post office, to Colorado, to me.

An infinitive phrase is a group of words with an infinitive and modifiers, pronouns, noun phrases that function as the actor, direct objects, indirect objects, or complements of the action or state expressed in the infinitive. 

Here are some examples of Infinitive Phrases:

            He planned to arrive later. (functions as a direct object of the verb planned)

            I have an apple to eat before class.  (adjective modifying apple)

            Adam decided to give her a present.  (functions as the direct object of verb)

            She wanted me to do the paper.  (functions as the direct objects of the verb)

Everyone elected me to be the President of the council.  (functions as direct object of verb elected)

Most of this information and some of the examples came from the Purdue University website on grammar.  http://owl.english.purdue.edu/hanouts/grammar/g_verbals.html.

Back