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An infinitive phrase is a verb phrase constructed with the verb in infinitive form. This consists of the verb together with its objects and other complements and modifiers . Some examples of infinitive phrases in English are given below – these may be based on either the full infinitive (introduced by the particle to ) or the bare infinitive ...
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.
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.
For example, the noun aerobics has given rise to the adjective aerobicized. [3] Words combine to form phrases. A phrase typically serves the same function as a word from some particular word class. [3] For example, my very good friend Peter is a phrase that can be used in a sentence as if it were a noun, and is therefore called a noun phrase.
The earliest use of the word clause in Middle English is non-technical and similar to the current everyday meaning of phrase: "A sentence or clause, a brief statement, a short passage, a short text or quotation; in a ~, briefly, in short; (b) a written message or letter; a story; a long passage in an author's source."
The infinitive without the article is of two sorts and has two discrete uses: the dynamic infinitive and the declarative infinitive. [10] [11] Traditionally they are said to be used not in indirect discourse and in indirect discourse respectively, [12] yet this terminology is misleading; for infinitives of both sorts may be used in indirect discourse transformations (for example one may say (a ...
(The infinitive verbs are 'to beat' and 'to rely'; the antecedents are 'woman' and 'man', respectively.) infinitive clauses presenting an 'implied' (and unvoiced) relative pronoun, or zero object argument, that takes an antecedent to that 'implied' argument: She is a woman to beat Ø; He is the man to rely on Ø.
A split infinitive is a grammatical construction specific to English in which an adverb or adverbial phrase separates the "to" and "infinitive" constituents of what was traditionally called the "full infinitive", but is more commonly known in modern linguistics as the to-infinitive (e.g., to go).