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In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual (traditional) description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition of infinitive that applies to all languages; however, in languages that have infinitives, they generally have most of the following properties: For the surname, see Grammer. ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
In linguistics, the term particle is often employed as a useful catch-all lacking a strict definition. ...
- In most of their uses, infinitives are non-finite verbs.
- They function as other lexical categories — usually nouns — within the clauses that contain them, for example by serving as the subject of another verb.
- They do not represent any of the verb's arguments (as employer and employee do).
- They are not inflected to agree with any subject, and their subject, if they have one, is not case-marked as such.
- They cannot serve as the only verb of a declarative sentence.
- They are the verb's lemma, citation form, and/or name; that is, they are regarded as its basic uninflected form, and/or they are used in giving its definition or conjugation.
- They do not have tense, aspect, moods, and/or voice, or they are limited in the range of tenses, aspects, moods, and/or voices that they can use. (In languages where infinitives do not have moods at all, they are usually treated as being their own non-finite mood.)
- They are used with auxiliary verbs.
However, it bears repeating that none of the above is a defining quality of the infinitive; infinitives do not have all these properties in every language, as it is shown below, and other verb forms may have one or more of them. For example, English gerunds and participles have most of these properties as well. A non-finite verb is not limited by the person, tense and number of the subject. ...
In grammar, a lexical category (also word class, lexical class, or in traditional grammar part of speech) is a linguistic category of words (or more precisely lexical items), which is generally defined by the syntactic or morphological behaviour of the lexical item in question. ...
Noun or noun substantive is a lexical category which is defined in terms of how its members combine with other grammatical kinds of expressions. ...
A syntactic verb argument, in linguistics, is a phrase that appears in a relationship with the verb in a proposition. ...
Inflection of the Spanish lexeme for cat, with blue representing the masculine gender, pink representing the feminine gender, grey representing the form used for mixed-gender, and green representing the plural number. ...
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns and adjectives to indicate such features as number (typically singular vs. ...
In linguistics, and particularly in morphology, a lemma or citation form is the canonical form of a lexeme. ...
In linguistics, citation form is the way a word is prononunced when it is spoken carefully and in isolation, such as when reading a list of words. ...
Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ...
In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. ...
It has been suggested that prohibitive mood be merged into this article or section. ...
In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc. ...
In linguistics, an auxiliary (also called helping verb, auxiliary verb, or verbal auxiliary) is a verb functioning to give further semantic or syntactic information about the main or full verb following it. ...
In linguistics, a gerund is a kind of verbal noun that exists in some languages. ...
In linguistics, a participle is a kind of verbal adjective; it indicates that the noun it modifies is a participant in the action that the participle refers to. ...
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 there is a controversy about whether it should be separated from the main word of the infinitive. (See Split infinitive.) Nonetheless, modern theories typically do not consider the to-infinitive to be a distinct constituent, instead taking the particle to to operate on an entire verb phrase; so, to buy a car is parsed as to {buy {a car}}, not as {to buy} {a car}. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
In linguistics, a participle is a kind of verbal adjective; it indicates that the noun it modifies is a participant in the action that the participle refers to. ...
In linguistics, a gerund is a kind of verbal noun that exists in some languages. ...
In linguistics, the term particle is often employed as a useful catch-all lacking a strict definition. ...
A split infinitive is a grammatical construction in the English language where a word or phrase, usually an adverb or adverbial phrase, occurs between the marker to and the bare infinitive (uninflected) form of a verb. ...
Constituent as used in syntactic analysis refers to a word or a group of words that function together as a unit and are embedded into a hierarchical structure. ...
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.
Huddleston and Pullum's recent Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (CGEL) does not use the notion of the infinitive, arguing that English uses the same form of the verb, the plain form, in infinitival clauses that it uses in imperative and present-subjunctive clauses. Professor Rodney Huddleston is a linguist and grammarian specializing in the study and description of English. ...
Professor Geoffrey K. Pullum (born in 1945 in Irvine, Scotland) is a linguist specialising in the study of English. ...
Imperative programming, as opposed to functional programming, is a sort of programming employing side-effect as central execution feature. ...
The subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood) is a grammatical mood of the verb that expresses wishes, commands (in subordinate clauses), and statements that are contrary to fact. ...
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.
In linguistics, an auxiliary or helping verb is a verb whose function it is to give further semantic information about the main or full verb which follows it. ...
The English modal auxiliary verbs are will and would shall and should may and might can and could must ought to Modal auxiliary verbs help other verbs express a meaning or an idea but have no meaning by themselves. ...
In grammar, the subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood) is a verb mood that exists in many languages. ...
In linguistics, many grammars have the concept of grammatical mood, which describes the relationship of a verb with reality and intent. ...
Uses of the full infinitive The full infinitive (or to-infinitive) is used in a great many different contexts: - Outside of dictionary headwords, it is the most commonly used citation form of the English verb: "How do we conjugate the verb to go?"
- It can be used like a noun phrase, 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 be used like an adjective or adverb, expressing purpose or intent. So, "He is [the man] to talk to", 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"; "[In 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-like 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?" In linguistics, citation form is the way a word is prononunced when it is spoken carefully and in isolation, such as when reading a list of words. ...
In linguistics, a gerund is a kind of verbal noun that exists in some languages. ...
The infinitive with auxiliary verbs The auxiliary verb do does not have an infinitive — even though do is also a main verb and in that sense is often used in the infinitive. One does not say *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." A split infinitive is a grammatical construction in the English language where a word or phrase, usually an adverb or adverbial phrase, occurs between the marker to and the bare infinitive (uninflected) form of a verb. ...
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." This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...
In grammar, voice is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb, and its arguments (subject, object, etc. ...
In English, and sometimes in other languages, the continuous or progressive aspect is an aspect that denotes an incomplete action in progress at a specific time. ...
Defective verbs The modal auxiliary verbs, can, may, shall, will and must are defective in that they do not have infinitives; so, one cannot say, *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. The English modal auxiliary verbs are will and would shall and should may and might can and could must ought to Modal auxiliary verbs help other verbs express a meaning or an idea but have no meaning by themselves. ...
A defective verb is a verb with an incomplete conjugation. ...
Circumlocution, like its Greek counterpart periphrasis, is a figure of speech where the meaning of a word or phrase is indirectly expressed through several or many words. ...
Germanic languages The original Germanic suffix of the infinitive was -an, with verbs derived from other words ending in -jan or -janan. In German 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 similar to English to, but is less frequent than in English. They can function as nouns, often expressing abstractions of the action, in which case they are of neuter gender: das Essen means the eating, but also the food. In Dutch 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), which admits the present form "is", and the verb "hê" (to have), whose present form is "het". Look up Wiktionary:Swadesh lists for Afrikaans and Dutch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Latin and Romance languages The formation of the infinitive in the Romance languages reflects that in their ancestor, Latin, in which almost all verbs had an infinitive ending with -re (preceded by one of various thematic vowels). For example, in Spanish and Portuguese, infinitives mostly end in -ar, -er, or -ir. In Romanian the so-called "long infinitives" end in -re, but these are in fact nominalizations, and are treated exactly as feminine nouns. The "short infinitives" used in verbal contexts (e.g. after an auxiliary verb) have the endings -(e)a, -e, and -i. The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ...
Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ...
Latin infinitives challenged several of the generalizations about infinitives. They did inflect for voice (amare, "to love", amari, to be loved) and for aspect (amare, "to love", amavisse, "to have loved"), and allowed for an overt expression of the subject (video Socratem currere, "I see Socrates running"). In grammar, the voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc. ...
In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. ...
Romance languages inherited from Latin the possibility of an overt expression of the subject. Moreover, the "inflected infinitive" (or "personal infinitive") found in Portuguese, Galician, and (some varieties of) Sardinian inflects for person and number. These are the only Indo-European languages that allow infinitives to take person and number endings. This helps to make infinitive clauses very common in these languages; for example, the English finite clause in order that you/she/we have... would be translated to Portuguese as para teres/ela ter/termos... (it is a null-subject language). The Portuguese personal infinitive has no proper tenses, only aspects (imperfect and perfect), but tenses can be expressed using periphrastic structures. For instance, even though you sing/have sung/are going to sing could be translated to apesar de cantares/teres cantado/ires cantar. Galician (Galician: galego, IPA: ) is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community with the constitutional status of historic nationality, located in northwestern Spain and small bordering zones in neighbouring autonomous communities of Asturias and Castilla y León. ...
This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...
The Indo-European languages comprise a family of several hundred related languages and dialects [1], including most of the major languages of Europe, as well as many spoken in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), the Iranian plateau (Southwest Asia), and Central Asia. ...
In linguistic typology, a null subject language is a language whose grammar permits an independent clause to lack an explicit subject. ...
Periphrasis, like its Latin counterpart circumlocution, is a figure of speech where the meaning of a word or phrase is indirectly expressed through several or many words. ...
Other Romance languages (including Spanish, Romanian, Catalan, and some Italian dialects) allow uninflected infinitives to combine with overt nominative subjects. For example, Spanish al abrir yo los ojos ("when I opened my eyes") or sin yo saberlo ("without my knowing about it").
Source: [1] Kim Schulte (1994), Pragmatic Causation in the Rise of the Romance Prepositional Infinitive: A statistically-based study with special reference to Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian. PhD Dissertation, University of Cambridge.
Slavic languages The infinitive in Russian 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 *mogt’ → moč’ (*могть → мочь) "can". Vowel stems, in Indo-European linguistics, are the stems of nouns or verbs that are thematic. ...
Some other Slavic languages have the infinitive typically ending in, for example, -ć (sometimes -c) in Polish, -t’ in Slovak, -t (formerly -ti) in Czech, -ty (-ти) in Ukrainian. Serbo-Croatian officially retains it but the infinitive is dying out in Serbia. Bulgarian and Macedonian have lost the infinitive altogether. Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup...
Anthem Serbia() on the European continent() Capital (and largest city) Belgrade Official languages Serbian language 1 Recognised regional languages Hungarian, Croatian, Slovak, Romanian, Rusyn 2 Albanian 3 Government Semi-presidential republic - President Boris Tadić - Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica Establishment - Formation 8th century - First unified state c. ...
Hebrew Hebrew has two infinitives, the infinitive absolute and the infinitive construct. The infinitive construct is used after prepositions and is inflected with pronominal endings to indicate its subject or object: bikhtōbh hassōphēr "when the scribe wrote", ahare lekhtō "after his going". When the infinitive construct is preceded by ל (lə-, li-, lā-) "to", it is identical in its meaning to the English to-infinitive, and this is its most frequent use in Modern Hebrew. The infinitive absolute is used to add emphasis or certainty to the verb, as in מות ימות mōth yāmūth (literally "die he will die"; figuratively, "he shall indeed die"). This construction is analogous to English cognate object 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. “Hebrew†redirects here. ...
In linguistics, a cognate object is a verbs object that is cognate with the verb. ...
Note, however, that the to-infinitive of Hebrew is not the dictionary form; that is the third person singular past tense. In linguistics, and particularly in morphology, a lemma or citation form is the canonical form of a lexeme. ...
Finnish To form the first infinitive, the strong form of the root (without consonant gradation or epenthetic 'e') is used, and these changes occur: Consonant gradation is a type of consonant mutation, in which consonants alternate between various grades. It is found in some Finno-Lappic languages such as Finnish, Estonian and Sámi; moreover, the Votic language is known for its extensive set of gradation patterns. ...
- 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. Vowel harmony (also metaphony) is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels. ...
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.
Seri The Seri language of northwestern Mexico has infinitival forms which are used in two constructions (with the verb meaning 'want' and with the verb meaning 'be able'). The infinitive is formed by adding a prefix to the stem: either iha- [iʔa-] (plus a vowel change of certain vowel-initial stems) if the complement clause is transitive, or ica- [ika-] (and no vowel change) if the complement clause is intransitive. The infinitive shows agreement in number with the controlling subject. Examples are: icatax ihmiimzo 'I want to go', where icatax is the singular infinitive of the verb 'go' (singular root is -atax), and icalx hamiimcajc 'we want to go', where icalx is the plural infinitive. Examples of the transitive infinitive: ihaho 'to see it/him/her/them' (root -aho), and ihacta 'to look at it/him/her/them' (root -oocta). Seri (referred to as cmiique iitom by the Seri people) is a language isolate spoken by the Seri people in two villages on the coast of Sonora, Mexico. ...
A transitive verb is a verb that requires both a subject and one or more objects. ...
An intransitive verb is a verb that has only one argument, that is, a verb with valency equal to one. ...
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 kitāb (subordinate clause with verb in subjunctive). Similarly, the modern Greek for "I want to write", as opposed to the ancient Greek θέλω γράφειν with the infinitive, is θέλω να γράψω, which is literally "I want that I should write". A verbal noun is a noun formed directly as an inflexion of a verb or a verb stem, sharing at least in part its constructions. ...
In grammar, the subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood) is a verb mood that exists in many languages. ...
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.
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