Infinitives
Read the sentences in the passage:
Nahid is a boy of a village farmer. His
father wants him to become a doctor to serve the people in distress. Everyday
Nahid goes to school early to sit on the front bench. Once he heard his teacher
say in the class: “ To serve man is to please God. To love man is to love God.”
Since then he has cherished a desire to have ability to serve. He does not read
to learn by rote. He tries to understand whatever he reads. It is very
important to write the lesson to learn it well. So after reading the lesson he
begins to write to keep it in memory. To grow crops his father works hard in
the field. Nahid also wants to work and
help his father. But his father does not let him to work. He does not want to
see his son work like others in the village. He hopes to see his son prosper in
life. He seems to have learnt how to act wisely.
v
This passage
contains Infinitive which is formed by adding ‘to’ before the verb. Infinitive
may be expressed or understood in the sentence without being used. In that
case, it is called bare infinitive.
Answer to the following questions:
i.
Which
sentence in the passage is without any infinitive?
ii.
How many
infinitives are there in sentence number three? Which ‘to’ is not infinitive
here?
iii.
Which of the
verbs in the passage have bareinfinitive?
Infinitives are of two kinds:
a.
Simple or
Noun Infinitive
b.
Gerundial or
Qualifying Infinitive
Simple or Noun Infinitive is used as:
i.
Subject of a
verb: To err is human.
ii.
Object of a
verb: He likes to swim. I taught him to read.
iii.
Object of a
preposition: He is about to die. He is about to go.
iv.
Complement
to verb: He seems to be an honest man. He appears to be a rich
man.
v.
Objective
complement: we take him to be a fool.
Gerundial Infinitive is used to:
i.
Modify an
adjective:
The old man is too weak to walk.
I am glad to receive your letter.
He is ready to go.
ii.
Modify a
verb:
The children went to play.
We eat to live.
iii.
Modify a noun:
It is a chair to sit on.
This is a house to let.
iv.
Modify an
adverb:
We went to the field to see the game.
I walked fast to avail the bus.
v.
Qualify a
sentence:
To speak the truth, he is an honest man.
To be brief, I am ruined.
Omission of Infinitive: After certain verbs (let, make, need, hear,
watch, see, dare) the infinitive is omitted.
Example:
a.
I saw him go
home.
b.
Let him
come.
c.
He need not
go there.
d.
He made me
do it.
e.
I heard him
say this.
f.
We watched
him go.
g.
We did not
let him go.
h.
You dare not
do it.
But in the passive voice of these verbs
(except let) infinitive ‘to’ is used.
a.
He was seen
to go.
b.
He was made
to do it.
c.
He was heard
to say this.
d.
Rahim was
not let go.
Modal Auxiliaries take bare infinitive.
v
Perfect infinitives:
Perfect infinitive is formed by using ‘to have’ before a principal verb:
a.
I wished to
have gone there.
b.
He seems to
have seen better days.
c.
They are
reported to have done this.
Perfect infinitive is used after past form of
verbs.
v
Split
infinitives:
Sometimes adverb or adverb phrase is used in
between infinitive and the verb in the sentence, in that case it is a split
infinitive.
a.
I request
you to kindly help me.
b.
I request
you to quickly do this.
The correct forms should be:
a.
I request
you to help me kindly.
b.
I request
you to do this quickly.
Exercise-12
Fill in the gaps using infinitives where
necessary:
i.
The
Headmaster advised me . . . . . . study regularly.
ii.
This is an
easy chair . . . . . . . sit on.
iii.
Munira is
eager . . . . . . . study engineering.
iv.
He need not
. . . . . . . do whatever he likes.
v.
This is a
house . . . . . . . sell.
vi.
You had
better . . . . . . . go than stay here.
vii.
He seems to
. . . . . . . be better today.
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