[Grammar] Raise your hand/Talk to the teacher/Listen to a CD

[kadioguy]

(From the Oxford Picture Dictionary, second edition)

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Why are they infinitives without "to" (rather than like "to raise your hand" or "raising your hand")?

Is it because they are imperative?

 

[jutfrank]

English vocabulary books don't usually put to before verbs. It isn't necessary.

 

[kadioguy]

English vocabulary books don't usually put to before verbs. It isn't necessary.

1. So when I see the structure in this kind of context, I can take it to mean "(to) verb phrase" (i.e., for example, [to] raise your hand).

2. Another similar use is that the article (if needed) before a noun is omitted, as follows:

Have I understood them correctly?

 

[5jj]

1. So when I see the structure in this kind of context, I can take it to mean "(to) verb" (i.e., for example, [to] raise your hand).

Why do you want to think of it that way?

 

[kadioguy]

Why do you want to think of it that way?

For being grammatically correct. :-?

 

[emsr2d2]

[strike]For being[/strike] [In order] to be grammatically correct. :-?

But they're grammatically correct without "to" too.

 

[kadioguy]

But they're grammatically correct without "to" too.

They are not sentences (only verb phrases), so either with or without "to" is okay. Is that right?

 

[5jj]

Most dictionaries and grammars use only the bare infinitive for the word they are defining/discussing.

 

[jutfrank]

My preference when presenting vocab in class to low-level learners is always to include to at the beginning of verb phrases and to include indefinite articles at the beginning of noun phrases. These things help show very clearly the grammar of the phrases.

 

[5jj]

I never use the to particle when introducing a verb as a vocabulary item. In the contexts in which they would normally be introduced, the verbs forms are:

Raise - do not [STRIKE]to[/STRIKE] raise
I [STRIKE]to[/STRIKE] raise - I [STRIKE]to[/STRIKE] raised - I have [STRIKE]to[/STRIKE] raised
I do not[STRIKE] to[/STRIKE] raise - I did not [STRIKE]to[/STRIKE] raise - I have not [STRIKE]to[/STRIKE] raised
Do you [STRIKE]to[/STRIKE] raise? - Did you [STRIKE]to[/STRIKE] raise? Have you [STRIKE]to [/STRIKE]raised?
I can/could/may/might/must/shall/should/will/would [STRIKE]to[/STRIKE] raise