English infinitive

Question

Hello, I am wondering if there is some classification of infinitives in English language:

-to infinitive
-bare infinitive

Any other? What about split infinitive?

Also, do you know some sites where I can find more detailed info about English infinitive than... wikipedia? Or some widely available) books, grammars, etc.?

Thanks.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Hello

I'll answer your questions in reverse order:

Personally, I'd avoid Wiki, but there are plenty of good grammars/usage manuals available. Perhaps you could try your local library and find one that has an enlightened approach to grammar. A useful website is www.ucl.ac.uk - it's pretty up-to-date in most areas.

The term 'split infinitive' is misleading, since English doesn't have an infinitive form of the verb in the way that, say, French does. For example, in the phrase to really succeed, where an adjunct (really) comes between to and the verb, to succeed is not a verb; it's two words, the subordinator to and the verb succeed. There is no rule of grammar requiring them to be adjacent.

I'd avoid using the terms "to infinitive" and "bare infinitive", for the reason given above. However, non-finite subordinate clauses headed by the so-called "infinitive" form ("plain" form is better) of the verb are called "infinitival" clauses - two kinds are found:"to-infinitival" or "bare infinitival". There is no other kind.

Best
J

Anonymous · Answer

There is absolutely no problem using "split infinitives" in English, though pedants sometimes say it should not be done. Placing an adverb between the "to" and the verb itself, as in "to boldly go", is completely in line with normal usage of verbs in English. Most English verbs are made up of at least two elements, auxiliary+verb, or modal+verb, and it is normal practice to put certain adverbs - for example adverbs of frequency - between the two elements.Usage of the full infinitive with to follows the same pattern.

You can find more information about short infinitives and full infinitives on this page: http://linguapress.com/grammar/infinitive.htm , which summarizes the situation quite compactly.

Cool Breeze · Answer

Even though English grammar is morphologically extremely simple, it's not as simple as the link in the above post would suggest. The English infinitive has two tenses, the present and the perfect. Besides, the infinitives of transitive verbs have two voices, active and passive. Examples:

Present active: I want to write it.
Present passive: It has to be written now.

Perfect active: You ought to have written it yesterday.
Perfect passive: It ought to have been written yesterday.

CB

English infinitive

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