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What is the infinitive in English. What is an infinitive

What is the infinitive in English. What is an infinitive

From this mysterious form begins the study. To correctly find it in context, you need to know exactly What is the infinitive in Russian. The concept of "verb infinitive" exists in such a position of this part of speech, in which it is impossible to determine the time of the action, and which subject performs it. When asked what form of the verb the infinitive is, there is a specific answer: the initial form.

In contact with

Translated from Latin, it sounds like this: “indefinite”. The questions that the initial form answers are: what to do? and what to do? Such parts of speech represent the action in a generalized way, without pointing to a specific person. This generalized action is the grammatical verbal meaning for the infinitive. There are several values, and they are permanent. According to the word in indefinite form, its form is determined. Examples of such dependence of the view on the question:

Draw - what to do? - an imperfect view.
Draw - what to do? - perfect view.

Important! The definition of the verb aspect depends on the prefix C - in the question.

Recognition

Suffixes

All personal forms have one feature: each of them has its own indefinite one. The infinitive answers questions with suffixes -ty or -ty. Knowing that these are suffixes of the infinitive, you can easily perform it morphemic parsing. These suffixes are formative. There are others infinitive suffixes, which pass into other morphemes:

-yva- - -iva,
-ova- - eva-.

Particular attention should be paid to the suffix -ch. This part came from the Old Slavonic language and is used in some words in the present tense. But the alternating h//k is included in the root.

Education

This fact is noteworthy: from the basis of the initial, the formation of all verb forms occurs. This function can also be performed by the stem of verbs in the present tense. In this case, the infinitive takes on the formation:

past tense;
subjunctive mood;
in the past time;
past participles.

For the formation of all other verb forms is responsible basis of the present.

Syntactic role

In terms of its role in a sentence, the infinitive is a mobile part of speech. He may be in the role any member of the proposal. How to define this function is clearly seen in specific examples.

Predicate: To live - to serve the motherland. Cell phones are suggested to be turned off.
Subject: Shouting is prohibited.
Definition inconsistent: Attempting to sneak away from the event proved to be impossible.
Addendum: I advise you to follow his instructions.
Circumstance: We went to our favorite lake to swim.

Infinitive as subject

Features of some members of the proposal

If the infinitive acts as a predicate, then it will denote an action performed either by the subject himself or by the person to whom it indicated. When it acts as a circumstance, most often attention is focused on the purpose for which the action of the object is performed. With the addition, one more character is connected, which cannot even be discussed, only a narration is being conducted about his action.

Infinitive as a predicate

Punctuation

When the rule of putting a dash between the subject and the predicate is studied, attention is focused on the indefinite form of the verb. If both the subject and the predicate are expressed with this, then a dash between them is necessary. A striking example of such a syntactic construction is the call from the Ministry of Health, which is familiar to every citizen who cares about their health. (Smoking is bad for your health!).

Infinitive as circumstance

Finding the foundation

Knowing the features of the formation of the invariable part of speech, it is easy to find its basis. it necessary for education such as participles and participles. For example, take the verb "done". It is in the singular, feminine and past tense. The stem must not contain the ending and suffix of the past tense. Thus, removing the ending -a and the suffix -l-, the desired stem of the infinitive is easily obtained: "did-".

An unmistakable definition

Every student must find initial shape and know how to put a verb in it. Knowing that the morphemes -ty and -ty are suffixes of the indefinite form of the verb, one can accurately determine that this is an infinitive. Now you can ask questions: “what to do?” or “what to do?”. For example, the verb "draw" requires the question "what to do?". And for “drawing”, only the question “what am I doing?” is suitable. Thus, the first word is an indefinite form, because in the second case the first person and singular are easily determined. There are no such categories in the verb “to draw”, it is indefinite.

The infinitive as a definition

What about the ending?

Until now, there has been heated debate among linguists about whether there is infinitive ending. According to the law of the appearance of a given morpheme, any part of speech must change. But uncertainty is the peculiarity of its initial, immutable form. And if so, where does the ending come from?

Conclusion

Of course, the spelling of any part of speech requires specific knowledge and its application. But there is no such morphological unit to which there would be the same close attention as to the verb in its initial position. This category has another name: the initial form.

Infinitive(from Latin infinitus - indefinite) - an indefinite form of a verb that names an action or a procedural state without indicating the time of the action, its relation to reality and to the subject of the action. The infinitive answers the questions what to do? what to do?: love, be, say.

As the most abstract, most generalized verb form, infinitive opposed to a complex of personal forms. is the most "pure" representative of the lexical meaning. He expresses the general grammatical meaning of the verb(action value) and has only those morphological features, which are constant for all verb forms: recurrence, transitivity, form, conjugation.

In relation to personal forms, it is characterized a high degree regularity: in Russian there are almost no personal forms of the verb from which it is impossible to form an infinitive and vice versa.

opposed to the personal forms of the verb, because it has no number, no person, no mood, no tense. It has only categories of the form ( write - write), grammatical meanings of recurrence ( build - build) and transitivity ( paint, lay) associated with the collateral category.

means of forming the infinitive, as a verb form are suffixes -т(do, sleep, live, saw) and -ti (carry, crawl, go).

Most infinitives with stems ending in a vowel have suffix -th. For some verbs, this suffix can also be placed after the consonant: gnaw, put. Suffix -ty(more ancient) can be found in a small group of verbs with a consonant stem. This suffix is always stressed. Some forms from -ti have options with -t:carry - carry(were distributed in literary language in the nineteenth century). Suffixes -th and -ty shaping and therefore are not included in the stem of the infinitive.

The Russian language has verb infinitives ending in on -ch(keep, guard, bake). In these verbs, -ch is part of the root. Such infinitives are formed from personal forms of verbs in -g, -k, -x with alternation: shore - protect, bake - oven. The ancient forms of these verbs are take care, pekti. As a result of historical changes, the combinations [gt] and [kt] formed the sound [h]. In ancient forms, the morphemic composition is clear: [g] and [k] are part of the root, and [t] is part of the suffix.

In addition to the formative suffixes -ty and -ty, the infinitive is characterized by the suffixes -a-, -e-, -i-, -yva-, -iva-, -ova-, -eva-, -nu-, etc.: hear, sit, saw, use, grieve, relax, etc.

In a sentence, the infinitive can perform the function of any member of the sentence. Most often it is part of the predicate.

The girl began to write poetry at the age of 6 at the same time in Russian, German and French (predicate).

And the queen laugh and shrug her shoulders (predicate).

Smoking is prohibited (subject).

Another attempt to rest was unsuccessful (inconsistent definition).

I suggest you sit and be silent (addition).

We went to some kind of ditch to shoot and to swim in a small river (a circumstance).

As the subject can be an independent infinitive. Usually it is in front of the predicate and is separated from it during pronunciation by a pause, and in writing by a dash.

, included in the predicate, denotes the action of the person named subject.

An infinitive that performs the syntactic function of an adverb goal, refers to the verbal predicate denoting movement. In some cases, such an infinitive can be replaced by a noun.

The infinitive as a complement denotes the action of another person, sometimes not named at all.

All verb forms are formed from two stems: stems of the infinitive and stems of the present tense.

From the stem of the infinitive the infinitive itself, the past tense and the subjunctive mood, the participle and the past participle, are formed, from present tense basics- present tense, imperative mood, participle and participle of the present tense.

To find the stem of the infinitive, from the feminine singular form of the past tense, we subtract the final -la: to say, said - the basis of the infinitive skaz -a-.

To find the basis of the present tense, from the form of the 3rd person plural of the present tense we subtract -at or -ut: to say, they will say - the basis of the present tense is say-.

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This article will tell you about the infinitive in English language.

The infinitive is the indefinite form of the verb. This form expresses action, but does not show a person or number. The infinitive answers the questions "what to do?", "what to do?": to run- run/run away to cook- to prepare / prepare. In a sentence, the infinitive can be used with the particle to and without it. In the article "" we talked in detail about these rules.

The infinitive can freely "travel" through the sentence. It usually plays the role of:

Subject
to walk alone late at night is very dangerous. - Walk alone late at night is very dangerous.
Parts of the predicate
My decision is to stay here for a couple of days. - My decision - stay here for a couple of days.
Add-ons
Many people hate to lose. - Many people hate lose.
Definitions
She was the best to solve this problem. - She's the best decided this task.
Circumstances
You can break this model. It was made to be tested. – You can break this model. She was made for testing.

Now we will move on to the most interesting part of our article - the forms of the infinitive.

Forms of the infinitive in English

In English, the infinitive has no less than four forms: simple ( simple), long ( continuous), perfect ( perfect), perfect continuous ( perfect continuous ). They may actually exist active) and passive voices ( passive).

Let's look at the table in which the verb is presented to ask(to ask) in different forms.

Infinitive	Simple	Continuous	Perfect	Perfect Continuous
Active	to ask	to be asking	to have asked	to have been asking
passive	to be asked	to be asked	to have been asked	to have been asked

In Russian there is no such variety of infinitive forms as in English. For this reason, when translating, we will most often use a simple infinitive or a verb in a personal form.

In fairness, it should be said that the continuous and perfect continuous passive infinitives are used extremely rarely in English.

Let's learn more about the forms themselves and their uses:

Simple Infinitive- simple infinitive
This is the form that we are used to seeing in the dictionary. It is usually used to indicate an action in the present or future tense.

I'm really glad to see you again. - I am very happy see you again.

This work should be done immediately. - This work should do immediately.
Continuous Infinitive- long infinitive
A long infinitive indicates a continuous action. This infinitive, like the simple one, denotes an action in the present or future tense.

He must be still reading a magazine. - He's probably still is reading magazine.

Please note that according to the classical rules between the particle to and other words are not put in the infinitive. But in modern colloquial language, an adverb may appear between them. This construction of the sentence is not considered a mistake, but in formal English it is better to avoid splitting the infinitive.
Perfect Infinitive- perfect infinitive
The perfect infinitive names an action that happened before the moment of speech specified in the sentence or before another action.

I'm sorry to have told him this secret. - I'm sorry that I told him this secret.

There is a drawing on the table. This sketch must have been made by George. - There is a drawing on the table. This sketch must be was made George.
Perfect Continuous Infinitive- perfect continuous infinitive
This infinitive shows an action that lasts until a certain moment or another action in the present.

He is dissatisfied to have been living here for five years. He is very unhappy with lives here for five years.

In conclusion, we suggest you watch a video in which the teacher Alex talks about the features of infinitives in the active and passive voices. And don't forget to take a little quiz that will help you remember the forms of the infinitive better.

Test

Infinitive in English: forms and their use

In relation to personal forms, it is characterized by a high degree of regularity: in Russian there are almost no personal forms of the verb from which it is impossible to form an infinitive and vice versa.

means of forming the infinitive, as a verb form are suffixes -т(do, sleep, live, saw) and -ti (carry, crawl, go).

Most infinitives with stems ending in a vowel have suffix -th. For some verbs, this suffix can also be placed after the consonant: gnaw, put. Suffix -ty(more ancient) can be found in a small group of verbs with a consonant stem. This suffix is always stressed. Some forms from -ti have options with -t:carry - carry(were common in the literary language in the nineteenth century). Suffixes -th and -ty shaping and therefore are not included in the stem of the infinitive.