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Infinitives: Discover, Know, Learn, Remember, Say, See, Think, Forget, Know, Understand, Wonder

The document discusses infinitives and their different types and uses. Infinitives are the base verb form used to create other forms and are expressed using "to", with some exceptions. There are simple, continuous, perfect, and passive infinitives. Infinitives can act as noun phrases and are used as objects or complements of verbs, after verbs of deciding or knowing, and to express purpose. Certain verbs can be followed by either an infinitive or gerund with no change in meaning, while others have meaning changes depending on which is used.

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24 views3 pages

Infinitives: Discover, Know, Learn, Remember, Say, See, Think, Forget, Know, Understand, Wonder

The document discusses infinitives and their different types and uses. Infinitives are the base verb form used to create other forms and are expressed using "to", with some exceptions. There are simple, continuous, perfect, and passive infinitives. Infinitives can act as noun phrases and are used as objects or complements of verbs, after verbs of deciding or knowing, and to express purpose. Certain verbs can be followed by either an infinitive or gerund with no change in meaning, while others have meaning changes depending on which is used.

Uploaded by

Tatiana Mihaela
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Infinitives

The infinitive form of the verb is the base form that we use to create other verb forms.
Infinitives are expressed using to. Infinitives without to are called bare infinitives. Infinitives,
like gerunds, can act as noun phrases in a sentence.

There are several types of infinitive:

- Simple Infinitive (to read)


- Continuous Infinitive (to be reading)
- Perfect Infinitive (to have read)
- Passive Infinitive (to be read)
- Negative form ( not comes before to)

Uses:
- as the object or complement of the verb

e. g. He began to watch the film.

- after these verbs followed by: where, which, why, how, when, whether, ask, decide,
discover, know, learn, remember, say, see, think, forget, know, understand, wonder.

e. g. They can’t decide whether to study Classics or Modern Languages.

She doesn’t know how to ask for permission.

He can’t decide whether to forget or to try to understand the situation.

- after these verbs : agree, appear, arrange, ask, attempt, choose, decide, demand, fail,
forget*, hope, learn, manage, offer, plan, prepare, promise, refuse, remember, seem,
try

e. g. We agreed to have a meeting about it.

They demanded to know the answers immediately.


Sarah choose to solve the problem on her own.

John refused to go to the party uninvited.

- After too and enough

e. g. They are old enough to drive a car.

They are too young to start drinking.

- To express purpose

e. g. They have bought a new car to replace the old one.

- After these verbs followed an object : advise, allow, ask, beg, command, enable,
encourage, expect, forbid, help, intend, invite, make, mean, order, permit, persuade, prefer,
remind, request, teach, tell, want, warn

e. g. The company prefers its staff to dress formally.

They don’t allow anyone to park in this area.

She prefers to be escorted from this place.

She warned him to choose carefully his next words.

The boss forbids the employees to smoke inside.

- In short answers

e. g Do you want to go ? Yes. I’d love to.

- After certain adjectives relating to emotions

e. g. I am pleased to meet you.

- After superlatives

e. g. It was the most difficult thing to do.

Some verbs can be followed either an infinitive or a gerund, sometimes with no changes of
meaning, and sometimes with changes of meaning.
Verb ( began, start, prefer, like, love, contiunue, hate, can’t stand, can’t bear)+ Infinitive or
Gerund (with no changes of meaning)

e. g. It began to rain. / It began raining.

I started to work. / I started working.

She can’t stand to wash the dishes. / She can’t stand washing dishes.

Important notes:

- Use the gerund to express the earlier action; use the infinitive to express the later
action.

e. g. I remember telling you about the accident. (the accident happened before I told you)

She remembered to lock the door (She remembered the advice and then locked the door)

- Stop means to finish an action if followed by a gerund and to finish one action in
order to do another one if followed by an infinitive

e. g. They stopped smoking when they began jogging

The train stoppes to allow passangers to get off.

- Try means experiment if followed by a gerund and attempt if followed by an infinitive.

e.g. They tried using a knife instead of a key, but it still didn’t open

They tried to open the door, but it was locked.

- be/get/become + used to + gerund means accustomed to (something)

They got used to driving on the rifht when they moved abroad.

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