Do you know what an infinitive phrase is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on infinitive phrases, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
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Kevin
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December 21, 2021
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What is an infinitive phrase?
According to Walden, there are many different forms of verbs in the English language, from a simple form of the verb to complex:
- Past participle tense
- Present perfect tense
- Simple past tense
- Conditional perfect progressive tense
- Imperative tense
- Present progressive tense
- Present participle tense
- Future perfect tense
- Simple future tense
- Simple present tense
- Past perfect progressive tense
- Perfect passive tense
- Future perfect progressive tense
- Subjunctive tense
- Simple conditional tense
- Gerund tense or gerund phrase
- To-infinitive tense
- Bare infinitive tense
- Conditional perfect tense
- Conditional tense
- Indicative tense
- Future progressive tense
- Past perfect tense
- Past progressive/continuous tense
- Conditional progressive tense
- Present perfect progressive/continuous tense
Today, we will be covering the infinitive phrase. An infinitive is formed by adding the word “to” in front of a base berd. These are not conjugated like other forms of verbs, and stay in their infinitive forms in a sentence. While they include verbs, infinitives are not verbs. Infinitive verbs are verbals, which means they can be used as nouns, adjectives or adverbs. A bare infinitive, which is an infinitive verb without the preceding “to,” is used after modal auxiliary verbs or helping verbs such as can, should, shall, would, will, could, may, might, and so on in a sentence. Here, the infinitives function as objects to the modal verbs, as they do in sentences with verbs of perception such as hear, see, feel, sense and verbs of permission such as bid, let, need, know, help, had better, sooner than, would rather, and so on. A split infinitive, which is an infinitive with an adverb or adjective between “to” and the verb, is bad grammar.
With regard to punctuation, it should be set off with a comma if the infinitive is used as an adverb and is the beginning phrase in a sentence. Otherwise, you do not need special punctuation. The infinitive phrase functions as the direct object of the verb. Beware of a grammar mistake in formal writing!
Many different languages also contain words that mean infinitive phrase. You may notice that some of these translations of infinitive phrase look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of infinitive phrase is provided by Word Sense.
- Catalan: infinitiu (masc.)
- Danish: infinitiv
- Korean: 부정사 (不定詞)
- Romanian: infinitiv (neut.)
- Tagalog: pawatas
- Turkish: mastar, eylemlik, isim-fiil
- Arabic: مَصْدَر (masc.) (verbal noun)
- Cyrillic: инфинитив (masc.)
- Finnish: infinitiivi
- Galician: infinitivo (masc.)
- German: Infinitiv (neut.) (masc.)
- Norwegian: infinitiv (masc.)
- Ido: infinitivo
- Bulgarian: инфинити́в (masc.)
- Yiddish: אינפֿיניטיוו (masc.)
- Mandarin: 不定詞, 不定词 (bùdìngcí)
- Latin: aparemphatum (neut.)
- Asturian: infinitivu (masc.)
- Latvian: nenoteiksme (fem.)
- Faroese: navnháttur (masc.)
- Spanish: infinitivo (masc.)
- Vietnamese: lối vô định
- Czech: infinitiv (masc.), neurčitek (masc.)
- Persian: مصدر (masdar)
- Afrikaans: infinitief
- Portuguese: infinitivo (masc.), infinito (masc.)
- Navajo: bee áhodoonííł saad
- French: infinitif (masc.)
- Lithuanian: bendratis (fem.)
- Roman: infinitiv (masc.)
- Kazakh: инфинитив
- Slovene: nedoločnik (masc.), ínfinitiv (masc.)
- Slovak: neurčitok (masc.), infinitív (masc.)
- Greek: απαρέμφατο (neut.)
- Norman: înfinnitif (masc.)
- Albanian: infinitiv
- Hebrew: שֵׁם פֹּעַל
- Georgian: ინფინიტივი
- Russian: неопределённая фо́рма (fem.) (глаго́ла), инфинити́в (masc.)
- Japanese: 不定詞 (ふていし, futeishi)
- Armenian: անորոշ դերբայ
- Polish: bezokolicznik (m-in)
- Estonian: tegevusnimi, infinitiiv
- Esperanto: infinitivo
- Belarusian: інфініты́ў (masc.), нявызна́чаная фо́рма (fem.) (дзеясло́ва)
- Hungarian: főnévi igenév
- Ukrainian: інфініти́в (masc.), дієйме́нник (masc.), невизна́чена фо́рма (fem.) (дієсло́ва)
- Italian: infinito (masc.)
- Macedonian: и́нфинитив (masc.)
What are examples of infinitive phrases?
Infinitive phrases can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or grammatical technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! Below are a couple of examples of infinitive phrases from Your Dictionary that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use. Take a look at these infinitive phrase examples in the following sentences and see how many you can identify the infinitive phrase in!
- Cameron travels to see the world.
- The Superbowl is the game to watch.
- Hunter would rather go to school.
- Read the manual to understand more about repairing the stereo.
- We decided to go out.
- I want to swim in the pool.
- Let’s buy snow gear to go skiing.
- Billie is finally ready to go.
- Oliver made me share my lunch with him.
- The actor knew he had to have ambition to succeed.
- My favorite meal to make is macaroni and cheese.
- I forgot to take my vitamins today.
- I went to college to become an engineer.
- He reminded her to go downtown.
- I saw her swim ten laps.
- My dad will be so happy to meet you!
- He does not like to drink soda from a can.
- You’ll always have a sister to confide in.
- Can you help me carry this upstairs?
- The best method to use is the hands-on method.
- Mom loves to give gifts.
- He certainly gave me something to think about.
- The birds stole the twigs to build a nest.
- I would like to thank you for coming out tonight.
- Fred does like you.
- You’d better tell me the truth.
- I bought a patch to stop smoking.
- Kelly went to the store to buy apples.
- Peter is a difficult guy to understand.
- She was trying to understand grammar, but got lost in all of the different terms: prepositional phrase, pronoun, direct objects, a modifier; it was all too much!
- I’d prefer to see an action movie.
- Do you have any laundry to wash?
- Dolphins are the best animal to watch through binoculars with clarity.
- You will need a time machine to see the dinosaurs.
- You are so easy to talk to.
- This is the most important thing to know.
- I was going to bake cookies for the concert.
- The interrupter was starting to annoy me.
- Math is my least favorite subject to study.
- I climbed the mountain to see the view.
- To dance is my little girl’s dream.
- Do you swear to tell the truth?
- That watch is a valuable heirloom to pass down.
Overall, the function of an infinitive phrase or infinitive form of a verb is to form an adverbial phrase, adjectival phrase, or noun phrase. The infinitive phrase acts as many different parts of speech in the above examples. The form of the infinitive and the types of infinitive phrases are a group of words that add additional words to the main clause. Infinitive phrases function as an adjective, adverb, or noun.
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