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Certain auxiliary verbs are modal verbs (such as can, must, etc., which defective verbs lacking an infinitive form or any truly inflected non-finite form) are complemented by a bare infinitive verb. periphrastic items, such as (1) had better or ought to as substitutes for should, (2) used to as a substitute for did , and (3) (to) be able to for ...
A typical English verb may have five different inflected forms: . The base form or plain form (go, write, climb), which has several uses—as an infinitive, imperative, present subjunctive, and present indicative except in the third-person singular
Present infinitives, also called contemporaneous infinitives, occur at the time of the main verb. Perfect infinitives (prior infinitives) occur at a time before the main verb. Future infinitives (subsequent infinitives) occur at a time after the main verb. For example, the contemporaneous infinitive in this sentence, Dīxērunt eum iuvāre eam.
In English, a non-finite verb form may constitute: an infinitive verb, including the auxiliary verb have — within a verb phrase that is predicated by a modal verb (e.g., "I could have cried"). within a to-infinitive phrase (e.g., "They seem to have moved"). a participle. a gerund. Each of the non-finite forms appears in a variety of environments.
(this use of the verb insist involves a prepositional phrase with on) I expect to arrive tomorrow. (this use of expect involves a to-infinitive phrase) I asked him whether he was coming. (this use of ask involves a direct object (him) and an interrogative content clause) More examples can be found at Verb patterns with the gerund.
Certain verb–modifier combinations, particularly when they have independent meaning (such as take on and get up), are known as "phrasal verbs". For details of possible patterns, see English clause syntax. See the Non-finite clauses section of that article for verb phrases headed by non-finite verb forms, such as infinitives and participles.
Further infinitives can be made using the gerundive. The present active infinitive is the second principal part (in regular verbs). It plays an important role in the syntactic construction of Accusative and infinitive, for instance. laudāre means, "to praise." The present passive infinitive is formed by adding a –rī to the present stem ...
However, the two-part infinitive is disputed, and some linguists argue that the infinitive in English is a single-word verb form, which may or may not be preceded by the particle to. Some modern generative analysts classify to as a "peculiar" auxiliary verb ; [ 43 ] other analysts, as the infinitival subordinator .