infinitive

[whl626]

Just because people pin point ' infinitive ' in a sentence differently that makes me wonder if I understand ' infinitive ' properly.

eg. I am going to make some more posts.

The so-called ' infinitive ' in this sentence is " to make " or only " make " ???

[MikeNewYork]

Just because people pin point ' infinitive ' in a sentence differently that makes me wonder if I understand ' infinitive ' properly.

eg. I am going to make some more posts.

The so-called ' infinitive ' in this sentence is " to make " or only " make " ???

That is not an easy question to answer. The good news is that it doesn't matter much. The construction "going + to + base verb" is a bit idiomatic in English. As you know, it is used as a substitute for the future tense.

Some would say that "going to" is a phrasal verb and "make" is a bare infinitive (without its own "to"). Others would say that "going" is part of the progressive form of "go" and "to make" is its infinitive complement. I prefer the second explanation, but both are defendable.

[Tdol]

I agrre with Mike- it is a matter of personal preference and I share his.

[whl626]

Ok don't use ' am going to ' :)

How about the simple one like ' I want to buy a book ' ?

the infinitive is ' buy ' or ' to buy ' then ?

[RonBee]

There is nothing wrong with am going to. People use it all the time to express determination. Example:

• I am going to buy a copy of that book tomorrow.

I am going to expresses greater certainty than I plan to.

[Casiopea]

Just because people pin point ' infinitive ' in a sentence differently that makes me wonder if I understand ' infinitive ' properly.

eg. I am going to make some more posts.

The so-called ' infinitive ' in this sentence is " to make " or only " make " ???

That's a really good question.

The word infinitive is a term used to refer to an uninflected verb form. There are two kinds of infinitives: 1) 'to' infinitives and 2) zero, or bare infinitives.

1) She asked them to read the article. ('to' infinitive)
2) She had them read the article. (zero/bare infinitive)

"I am going to write some more posts." ('to' infinitive)
"I am going to write some more posts. " (zero/bare infinitive)

"To go is what I have to do." ('to' infinitive)

:D

[whl626]

Hmm, for the first infinitive that's the ' to ' infinitive. Can I say the ' to ' is the preposition since it is already a preposition by itself ? But if we do label ' to ' as preposition then the ' verb ' must be in ing form that is equivalent to ' gerund '.

In the infinitive we don't do that, so the infinitive is supposed to involve ' to ' that is to say ' I am going to write some more posts. '

... to write .... is the infinitive. Am I right to reason it this way ???

Eagerly waiting for your feedback :P:P:P

[Casiopea]

Hmm, for the first infinitive that's the ' to ' infinitive. Can I say the ' to ' is the preposition since it is already a preposition by itself ? But if we do label ' to ' as preposition then the ' verb ' must be in ing form that is equivalent to ' gerund '.

In the infinitive we don't do that, so the infinitive is supposed to involve ' to ' that is to say ' I am going to write some more posts. '

... to write .... is the infinitive. Am I right to reason it this way ???

Eagerly waiting for your feedback :P:P:P

There are two "to"s in English. One is a preposition; it comes before a noun (e.g. Give the book to Sam), and it means, 'to(wards) the direction of a thing or a person'. The other is an infinitive verb marker; it comes before a verb (e.g. to go), never a noun, and it has no meaning at all. It's semantically empty.

to arose with infinitives in Middle English from Old English dative to , "for the purpose of", though in Middle English to is a mere sign, without meaning. In Old English no verb required to before the infinitive. Old English infinitive verbs were marked by the suffix -an, and as that suffix was undergoing change in Middle English, the word to was introduced:

To break
Old English: breoken
Middle English: to breoke
Modern English: to break

In short, in Modern English, an infinitive is formed with to plus the verb base form, and 'to' has no meaning and is not a preposition, and sometimes it's used without 'to' (bare-infinitive = only verb base form).

Because it is formed with a verb (half verb), it may have an object and modifiers. The infinitive and its object and/or modifiers form an infinitive phrase.

Because the infinitive is formed from a verb, it may have tense - present ( to see ), or perfect ( to have seen).

The infinitive phrase or infinitive is used
[ 1 ] as an adjective phrase: half adjective, to modify a noun or pronoun, and half verb;

Example:

The sign says that this hotel has rooms to rent to transients as well as to permanent guests. ( modifying a noun 'rooms' )

[ 2 ] as an adverb phrase: half adverb, to modify a verb, adjective, or another adverb, and half verb;

Examples:

The children hurried to see the parade. (modifying verb 'hurried' )
The grass in the hayfield is ready to mow. (modifying adjective 'ready')
The room is not light enough to serve as a studio. (modifying adverb 'enough')

[ 3 ] as a noun phrase: half noun, in any of the ways that a noun may be used, and half verb.

Example:
subject : To spend money carelessly is foolish.
direct object : Children like to visit their grandparents.
predicate nominative : My hope is to see you in Germany.
object of preposition : We ask nothing except to be at peace.
appositive : The most difficult task, to spade the garden, we left to the hired hand.

SOURCE
http://www.kwonsreading.com/grammar/...infinitive.htm

:D

[Casiopea]

...the infinitive is supposed to involve ' to ' that is to say 'I am going to write some more posts. ' ... to write .... is the infinitive. Am I right to reason it this way?

Prepositional Phrase
I am going to school. (PP headed by a 'to' preposition)

Verb Phrase
I am going to write. (VP headed by a 'to' infinitive)

I am going + object => to write. (verb)
I am going + object => to school. (noun)

to write and to school are syntactic objects of the verb 'am going'.

Compare:

Gerund
I am going skiing. (object of 'am going')

'to' Infinitive
I am going to ski that hill. (object of 'am going')

Prepositional Phrase
I am going to ski school. (object of 'am going')

:D

[whl626]

:) Thanks, much clearer now :)