A 

nonfinite verb is a verb that is not finite. Nonfinite verbs cannot perform action as the root of
an independent clause. Most nonfinite verbs found in English are infinitives, participles and gerunds.
(They sometimes are called “verbals”, but that term has traditionally applied only to participles and
gerunds.) Additional nonfinite forms found in some other languages
include converbs, gerundives and supines.
Nonfinite verbs typically are not inflected by grammatical tense, and they have little inflection for
other grammatical categories.[1] Generally, they also lack a subject dependent. One or more nonfinite
verbs may be associated with a finite verb in a finite clause: the elements of a verb catena, or verb chain.

Examples
The following sentences each contain one finite verb (underlined) and multiple nonfinite verbs (in bold):
The proposal has been intensively examined today.
What did they want to have done about that?
Someone tried to refuse to accept the offer.
Coming downstairs, she saw the man running away.
I am trying to get the tickets.
In the above sentences, been, examined and done are past
participles, want, have, refuse, accept and get are infinitives, and coming, running and trying are
present participles (for alternative terminology, see the sections below).
In languages like English that have little inflectional morphology, certain finite and nonfinite forms of a
given verb are often identical, e.g.
a. They laugh a lot. - Finite verb (present tense) in bold
b. They will laugh a lot. - Nonfinite infinitive in bold
a. Tom tried to help. - Finite verb (past tense) in bold
b. Tom has tried to help. - Nonfinite participle in bold
Despite the fact that the verbs in bold have the same outward appearance, the first in each
pair is finite and the second is nonfinite. To distinguish the finite and nonfinite uses, one has
to consider the environments in which they appear. Finite verbs in English usually appear as
the leftmost verb in a verb catena.[2] For details of verb inflection in English, see English
verbs.
English has three kinds of nonfinite verbs:

1. infinitives,
2. participles, and
3. gerunds
Each of the nonfinite forms appears in a variety of environments.
Infinitives[edit]
Main article: Infinitive
The infinitive of a verb is considered the "base" form, listed in dictionaries. English
infinitives appear in verb catenae if they are introduced by an auxiliary verb or by a
certain limited class of main verbs. They are also often introduced by a main verb
followed by the particle to (as illustrated in the examples below). Further, infinitives
introduced by tocan function as noun phrases or even as modifiers of nouns. The
following table illustrates such environments:

Infinitive Introduced by a Introduced by a Introduced by Functioning as Functioning

 as the
(modal) auxiliary a main verb
main verb noun phrase modifier of a
verb plus to
noun

To
That made I tried not laugh would the reason to
laugh Do not laugh!
me laugh. to laugh. have been laugh
unwise.

We let They refused To leave was the thing to

leave They may leave.
them leave. to leave. not an option. leave behind

To expand the
You We had We hope
explanation the effort to
expand should expand the them expand the to expand the
would have expand
explanation. explanation. explanation.
been folly.

Participles[edit]
Main article: Participle
English participles can be divided along two lines: according to aspect (progressive
vs. perfect/perfective) and voice (active vs. passive). The following table illustrates
the distinctions:

Participle Progressive active participle Perfect active participle Passive participle

fix The guy is fixing my bike. He has fixed my bike My bike was fixed.

The flower The flower has

open I saw the flower opening up
has opened up. been opened up.

She watched the The news I understood the

support
news supporting the point has supported the point. point supported by the news

drive She is driving our car. She has driven our car. Our car should be driven often.

Participles appear in a variety of environments. They can appear

in periphrastic verb catenae, when they help form the main predicate of a
clause, as is illustrated with the trees below. Also, they can appear essentially
as an adjective modifying a noun. The form of a given perfect or passive
participle is strongly influenced by the status of the verb at hand. The perfect
and the passive participles of strong verbs in Germanic languages are irregular
 (e.g. driven) and must be learned for each verb. The perfect and passive
participles of weak verbs, in contrast, are regular and are formed with the
suffix -ed (e.g. fixed, supported, opened).
Gerunds[edit]
Main article: Gerund
A gerund is a verb form that appears in positions that are usually reserved for
nouns. In English, a gerund has the same form as a progressive active
participle and so ends in -ing. Gerunds typically appear as subject or object
noun phrases or even as the object of a preposition:

Gerund Gerund as subject Gerund as object Gerund as object of a preposition

Solving problems is No one is better

solve I like solving problems.
satisfying. at solving problems.

jog Jogging is boring. He has started jogging. Before jogging, she stretches.

Eating too much made She avoids eating too That prevents you from eating too

eat
me sick. much. much.

investigat Investigating the facts We tried investigating the After investigating the facts, we

e won't hurt. facts. made a decision.

Often, distinguishing between a gerund and a progressive active participle

is not easy in English, and there is no clear boundary between the two
nonfinite verb forms.
Native American languages[edit]
Some languages, including many Native American languages, form
nonfinite constructions by using nominalized verbs.[3] Others do not have
any nonfinite verbs. Where most European and Asian languages use
nonfinite verbs, Native American languages tend to use ordinary verb
forms.
Modern Greek[edit]
The nonfinite verb forms in Modern Greek are identical to the third person
of the dependent (or aorist subjunctive) and it is also called the aorist
infinitive. It is used with the auxiliary verb έχω (to have) to form the perfect,
the pluperfect and the future perfect tenses.

Theories of syntax[edit]
For an overview of dependency grammar structure in
modern linguistic analysis, three example sentences are shown. The first
sentence, The proposal has been intensively examined, is described as
follows.
The three verbs together form a chain, or verb catena (in purple),
which functions as the predicate of the sentence. The finite verb has is
inflected for person and number, tense, and mood: third person
singular, present tense, indicative. The nonfinite
verbs been and examined are, except for tense, neutral across such
categories and are not inflected otherwise. The subject, proposal, is a
dependent of the finite verb has, which is the root (highest word) in the
verb catena. The nonfinite verbs lack a subject dependent.
The second sentence shows the following dependency structure:

The verb catena (in purple) contains four verbs (three of which are
nonfinite) and the particle to, which introduces the infinitive have.
Again, the one finite verb, did, is the root of the entire verb catena
and the subject, they, is a dependent of the finite verb.
The third sentence has the following dependency structure:
Here the verb catena contains three main verbs so there are
three separate predicates in the verb catena.
The three examples show distinctions between finite and
nonfinite verbs and the roles of these distinctions in sentence
structure. For example, nonfinite verbs can be auxiliary verbs
or main verbs and they appear as infinitives, participles,
gerunds etc.