Infinitive English Language "To" infinitive Bare Infinitive

In foreign language courses, the present simple tense of the infinitive is often referred to as the "dictionary form", as this is the basic form of a verb which is usually presented in dictionaries.

1 English language

1.1 "To"-infinitive

By far the most common form of an infinitive in English language is with the particle "to", such as in "to walk", "to cry", "to eat", "to fear". This is known as the to-infinitive. William Shakespeare used a number of infinitives of this form in one of his most famous soliloquies, the "Soliloquy of Hamlet"

Verbs that are commonly followed by a to-infinitive include: agree, aim, appear, apply, arrange*, ask*, beg*, choose*, consent, decide, demand, desire, expect*, fail, guarantee, hope, intend*, long, negotiate, plan, plead, pledge, prefer*, pretend, resolve, seek, swear, threaten, undertake, volunteer, want*, wish*.

Those which are followed by an object and a to-infinitive include (in addition to those marked with an asterisk above): advise, allow, challenge, command, compel, condemn, enable, encourage, expect, forbid, force, help, induce, induce, inspire, instruct, invite, oblige, order, permit, persuade, prefer, program, remind, teach, tell, train, urge, warn.

Some verbs are followed by for + object + to-infinitive. These verbs normally express wanting, and cannot be followed by an object and an infinitive alone (though an infinitive alone may work). These verbs include apply, arrange, ask, call, clamour, long, opt, plead, press, vote, wait, wish, yearn.

1.2 Bare infinitive

A less common form of the infinitive is with the conditional auxiliary verbs "may" or "might". An example can again be found in the speech by Hamlet referenced above; "What dreams may come ...?". Another example is "we might win".

A third case of infinitive drops the preposition altogether. This is possible when the infinitive form is used in conjunction with a specific set of verbs - these include "feel", "hear", "help", "let", "make" (in the active), "see", and "watch", and dare and need in negative sentences. Examples include:

The last two cases, where the infinitive appears without to, are called the bare infinitive.

1.3 Other infinitives

In addition to the to-infinitive and the bare infinitive, English also knows other types of infinitive.

1.3.1 Verbs followed by to be

This so called passive infinitive is used after certain verbs, especially reporting verbs, in between which an object stands. Verbs commonly followed by the passive infinitive are: allege, assume, believe, consider, estimate, fail, feel, imagine, instruct, know, prove, reckon, report, rumour, say, think, understand, want.

For example:

The new party failed to be elected in at last Sunday's election.
I once wanted to be a constable, but have ended up as a doctor.
She is said to be a wonderful dancer.
We estimate our expenses to be higher than anticipated.
You are rumoured to be rather difficult at times.

1.3.2 The perfect infinitive

With reporting verbs, as well as appear, claim, happen, pretend, prove, seem, tend, and so on, the Perfect infinitive (to + have + past participle) is used to emphasise one action's occurring before another.

For example:

You seem to have lost weight.
He was said to have been granted a scholarship.

This structure can usually be rewritten with a preparatory it + defining relative (that) clause and a perfect tense. For instance: It seems that you have lost weight. It was said that he had been granted a scholarship.

1.4 Tenses of the infinitive

Infinitives in English exist in many tenses. Here is a table showing these different tenses for the verb to cook.

	Active	Passive
Present simple	(to) cook	(to) be cooked
Present continuous	(to) be cooking	/
Present perfect simple	(to) have cooked	(to) have been cooked
Present perfect continuous	(to) have been cooking	/

2 Germanic languages

The original Germanic suffix of the infinitive was -an, with verbs derived from other words ending in -jan or -janan. In GermanGerman (called Deutsch in German in which germanisch refers to prechristian times), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and one of the world's major languages. It is the language with the most native speakers in the European Union. it is -en ("sagen"), with -eln or -ern endings on a few words based on -l or -r roots ("segeln", "ändern"); the use of zu with infinitives is less frequent than to in English. They can function as nouns in the -en form with a capitalized beginning letter, in which case they are of neuter gender ("das Essen" means the gerund "eating"). In DutchDutch is a West Germanic language spoken worldwide by around 21 million people. The variety of Dutch spoken in Belgium is also informally called Flemish . The Dutch name for the language is Nederlands or less formal Hollands and Dutch is sometimes called infinitives also end in -en ("zeggen" - to say), sometimes used with 'te' similar to English to, e.g. "Ik zit te schrijven" -> "I sit to write". In Scandinavian languages the n has dropped out and it is -e or -a.

3 Romance languages

Romance infinitives can be used in much the same way as the "to" form of the infinitive is used in English, and they can also sometimes function as masculine nouns. In SpanishThis article is about the international language known as Spanish. For other languages spoken in Spain see Languages of Spain Spanish is an Iberian Romance language, and the third or fourth most spoken language in the world. It is spoken as a first langua and PortuguesePortuguese portugues is a Romance language predominantly spoken in Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, and East Timor. With more than 200 million native speakers, Portuguese is one of the few languages spoken in such widely-distributed parts, infinitives mostly end in -ar, -er, or -ir. A similar phenomenon also exists in FrenchFrench le francais la langue francaise is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered only by Spanish and Portuguese. French is the 11th most spoken language in the world, spoken by about 77 million people (called Francophones) as a mother to: infinitives of verbs have the suffixes -er, -ir, -re or -oir. ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 70 million people, most of whom live in Italy. Standard Italian is based on Tuscan dialects and is somewhat intermediate between the languages of Southern Italy and the Gallo-Romance languages of the North. 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).

4 Slavic languages

The infinitive in RussianRussian /'ruski j'zk/) is the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages. Russian belongs to the group of Indo-European languages, and is therefore related to Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, as well as the modern Germanic, Romance, and Celtic languages, inclu usually ends in -t' (ть) preceded by a thematic vowel; some verbs have a stem ending in a consonant and change the t to ch, such as *могть -> мочь "can". Some other Slavic languages have the infinitive typically ending in -c.

5 Hebrew language

Hebrew has two infinitives, the infinitive absolute and the infinitive construct. The infinitive construct is used much as an English infinitive, including being preceded by ל "to" the infinitive absolute is used to add emphasis or certainty to the verb, as in מות ימות "he shall indeed die".

6 See also:

English language Grammar

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