TOPIC 21

THE INFINITIVE &

THE -ING FORM
OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
THE INFINITIVE
THE -ING FORM
THE GERUND OR THE INFINITIVE AFTER CERTAIN VERBS & VERBAL
PHRASES
INTRODUCTION- Infinitives CHARACTERISTICS
FINITE verb: tense, mood, voice, aspect, number & person.

NON-FINITE verb groups: Can be followed by objects, adjuncts & complements

(only show voice & aspect).

The Infinitive in the Early Stages of the Language, now a neutral form due to
its erosion through the years.
-Old English- ending -an ( only inflected form: dative- enne). Under
influence of -an : the dative became - anne.
-Middle English- became identical in form with the present
indicative.present subjunctive & the imperative.
-Modern English . infinitive is one of several applications or uses,
Jespersen calls “Base form”
THE INFINITIVE

As a VERBAL SUBSTANTIVE, often has function of such .

As a NOUN, it may be subject, object or predicative. “To err is human, to
forgive divine”(subject). Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark (object).
Talking is not always to converse (predicative).

In SPOKEN ENGLISH, the infinitive is rarely subject.; Usually confined to

LITERARY STYLE. THE PRESENT INFINITIVE
- No indication of time in itself.
- Its temporal aspect, determined by the governing element or context.
It refers to: The present: To be with you is …
The future: I hope to see you…
The past: How clever of her not to accept the …
THE PERFECT INFINITIVE

- Indicates what has preceded: He is said to have spoken.

- No future infinitive ( colloquial speech an exception): I (shall) hope to see you soon.

THE PASSIVE INFINITIVE

- Same ambiguity as passive of perfective verbs in general.

- Vacillation in context between state & action. Do you expect the office to be closed?
THE PROGRESSIVE INFINITIVE

- Action of certain duration around a point in time . “We shall be arriving in two days”.
-
Combining with “shall” or “will” indicates immediate future. More tourists will arrive
soon vs. More tourist will be arriving soon. -
Used preceded by the proclitic particle “to” or without it:

Without it – BARE, PLAIN or INFINITIVE without “to” (only functions as a verb).

With “to”- FULL or INFINITIVE with “to” (functions as a verb or a noun).

USES of the FULL INFINITIVE

“To” + infinitive originally expressed the usual meaning of the preposition

disappeared, except:-“Be”, “have”, “ought”, “used”, subordinated in meaning &
stress to the second verb: She is to come soon; They have to answer immediately..
- Adjunct or object to the preceding verb: Children fear to go in the dark.
- Adjunct to the preceding noun: It´s the right thing to do.
- Adjunct to the preceding adjective: She was unable to sleep.
- Qualifier of a verb, noun or complete sentence, PURPOSE:
He came here to speak to me, not to you.
- After “in order to”, ”so as to”: In order to be effective, a poem must be beautiful.
- After interrogative pronoun or adverb, conjunction or relative pronoun: Tell me where to go.
USES of the FULL INFINITIVE continuation

- After ”know”, “forget”, “learn”, “teach” followed by “how” to express MANNER:

I don´t know how to play the piano.
- After present or past tense “be” – COMMAND or ARRANGEMENT:
We are to be married next week.

- After “in order to”, ”so as to”: In order to be effective, a poem must be beautiful.
- After interrogative pronoun or adverb, conjunction or relative pronoun: Tell me where to go.
- After ”know”, “forget”, “learn”, “teach” followed by “how” to EXPRESS MANNER:
I don´t know how to play the piano.
- After present or past tense “be” – COMMAND or ARRANGEMENT:
We are to be married next week.
ACCUSATIVE FULL INFINITIVE: as an ACT OF WILL or to express VOLITION:
To want, to wish, to like , to prefer, to hate, to love, to dislike

- Action addressed to somebody different from the subject: He wanted me to stay.

- In LITERARY ENGLISH: To cause, to mean, to ask, to command, to advise, to
request, to tell, to order, to invite , to expect, to find, etc.
- In SPOKEN ENGLISH - Subordinate clause.
- The infinitive “to be” (may be omitted); or to have been: Most people supposed him (to be)
innocent ( literary English); Most people supposed that he was innocent. -
Verbs ALTERNATIVE STRUCTURE: To expect, to find, to appoint, to leave, to
nominate, to trust, to promote: I´ve found (that) it works ( Nominal Clause); I´ve found it to
work ( Infinitive with “to”) .
ACCUSATIVE + PASSIVE INFINITIVE
-When subject of the infinitive is unknown: He believed his intentions to have been misrepresented
( by his enemies). - It must be accompanied by PROCLITIC PARTICLE.
- “To let” (the passive) ONLY verb used without the proclitic particle.
You cannot let the house be neglected like that.

NOMINATIVE + INFINITIVE -Not knowing the subject of the main verb, the subject
of the infinitive is converted into subject of the main verb: They meant us to know. We were
meant to know. -Verbs PHYSICAL PERCEPTION, govern the infinitive without “to” :to hear,
feel, see, etc,( use of “to” is compulsory): They saw the ship turn to starboard (Active). The
ship was seen to turn to starboard (Passive).
Also with to make, find, know: I was made to do the exercise. -
OPINION and PERCEPTION (to believe, declare, imagine, hear, etc): He was supposed to be
in London. - “Say” :He is said to be a misery. “Feel” and “see” ( MENTAL PERCEPTION),
“know” ( “to be aware”): The plan was felt/seen to be wrong.
FOR + ACCUSATIVE + FULL INFINITIVE: Infinitive depends on a noun or an
adjective: This house is too small for us to live in.

-ACCUSATIVE -two grammatical functions: subject of the infinitive & adjunct of the
preceding noun. PURPOSE & CONSEQUENCE or CONDITION

Many verbs in English govern the preposition “for”;

We were waiting for the shop to open. -
The noun normally comes from verbs of order, intention, plan or necessity:
There is no need for you to hrry.

The SPLIT INFINITIVE-Separation of the proclitic particle “to” from infinitive by adverb
of adverbial phrase. Advised against its use but common . He liked to half close his eyes.
BARE INFINITIVE

Modal verbs can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would:
Tell them they can go to the theatre.

“dare” & “needn’t” mainly in negative and interrogatives. These two verbs
are defective in a way, tendency to regularise the interrogative and negative
sentences: She needn’t take the umbrella. -When treated as regular verbs, they
have an infinitive with “to”.

- “DO” as an operator or for emphasis: Don’t you think he is awfully clever?; Do tell us what
happened.

-After “had better, would rather, would sooner, rather than, sooner than”. I’d rather
stay than go.
- After verbs: let, make, help. Help.
AmE is usually followed by bare infinitive, BrE by both. AmE:You must help wash up, BrE He
helped to carry her basket. -
In noun predicative clauses, when the subject is a pseudo-cleft sentence, the plain
infinitive is more usual: What you have done is (to) spoil everything.
Replying to questions , the infinitive: What shall we do if she doesn’t come? Begin without her.

Accusative with Plain Infinitive -VERBS PHYSICAL PERCEPTION to hear, to feel, to

see, to watch, to notice, to perceive, to observe, etc . -
LET & MAKE CAUSATIVE sense or meaning: He let his son go to the cinema. -
To have-PERMISSION: I won’t have you do this.–COMMAND / CAUSATIVE: Have him cut the lawn.
. –
SENSE OF EXPERIENCE: I had an extraordinary thing happen to me. -TO
FIND & TO KNOW, present perfect with EXPERIENCE: I’ve never known him make such a fuss -TO
HELP (some occasions): Help me do this translation.
THE GERUND -ING FORM.

Added to the stem or base of verb, as a noun: Playing tennis isn’t expensive in England; -
It fo the present participle, the two forms are used differently.;The present participle as
a verbal adjective: This is a boring book. -Word
with the -ing suffix as: -A noun. The headmaster gave him a warning .-A gerund. She hated
dancing. -The present participle. The cat is drinking its milk. -An adjective. She bought a pair of
walking shoes. -A prepositional phrase. I telephoned him concerning the will.. -With the -
ing suffix as verbal nouns:His writing was awful.

- Ing form may have a verbal function, it may take an object: I am fond of drinking beer or be
qualified by an adverb: He educated himself by reading widely
The -ing as Present Participle.

PARTICIPLE ADJECTIVES, -ing describe the person or thing that produces

somebody’s feelings: This is a boring film.

-Used as full adjectives: That is a very interesting/exciting/amusing story.

-A characteristic feature of the thing referred to by the noun. The speaker was given a
standing ovation;
Participle clauses. To introduce a participle clause: I hurt my leg playing tennis. -
Like adjectives, giving more information about the noun: Simon is the boy sitting in the corner;
like adverbs: I hurt my leg playing tennis ( while).
An action happening before another action, HAVING + PAST PARTICIPLE for the first
action: Having finished breakfast, I went out for a walk
THE -ING as a GERUND

It may take articles & determiners: There was a gentle tapping at the door.

-Combining in attributive adjectival functions: There was much coming and going. -
Part of compounds, same way as substantives: walking-stick, boxing-gloves. -
Coordinated with another noun: Travelling and accommodation are always first class. -
As subject, object, predicative complement and complement of a preposition: Her feelings
have been hurt; She has given up smoking; He is playing with fire; He is good at climbing.

The Gerund as a Verb. -

Combined with adverbial members : He disliked drinking heavily. -It can
have an object or predicative complement: After reading the letter, she left the room. -It can
have a subject: She got a sense of it being her duty to do . -
Inflected in the perfect and the passive: They saved him from being hurt.
As part of a Prepositional Adjunct: He insisted on seeing her. .
Verbs + preposition/adverb combinations always take the gerund: be for/against, give
up, keep on, leave off, look forward to, put off, see about, take to, etc:
She keeps on refusing my help.

The Gerund after Prepositions. -

Used more frequently than the infinitive after a preposition : They were thinking of emigrating,
used after: above, against, at, before, besides, between, by, for, from, in,into, near, of,
on, past, since, towards, upon, with, in, without, : He is past saving.
Also common after: as, than, as well as & worth: That’s worth considering.
As the Object or Adjunct of a Verb or Verbal Phrases: -
Main verb and verbal phrases; to avoid, to deny, to detest, to enjoy, to escape, to
give up/over, to finish, to fancy, it’s no good, cannot help, to keep (on) to leave off, to mind,
to postpone, to put off, to resent to, stop , have done, to resist: It’s no good talking to him.
After verbs PERCEPTION:

-Both the gerund and the bare infinitive can be used:

I heard the bombs dropping.(part of the action); I heard the bombs drop.(the complete action).

Other uses-After to go and to come (denoting PHYSICAL ACTIVITY), to shop & special
constructions spend, waste time: I went shopping last week. She wasted hours looking for a flat.

After Pronouns and Possessive Adjectives:

In formal English the possessive adjective is used with the gerund,
In spoken and less formal English it is common to use the accusative personal pronoun
She doesn’t mind my (or me) coming in late.

-The Perfect Gerund: It can be used instead of the present form of the gerund
when we are referring to a past action. Example: after “to deny”: He denied having been there.
Differences between the -ing and “to+ infinitive”..After to remember, to regret and to
forget the infinitive refers to the future, the gerund to the past:
I must remember (not forget) to ask him; I remember (can’t forget) seeing them when hey were children.

To try “to make an experiment”, takes a gerund & the infinitive when it means “to
make an attempt, an effort”: To make a living he had tried writing, but he failed; He
tried to keep perfectly still for a moment.

. To mean “to involve”,takes a gerund & an infinitive when it means “to

intend”: If you take that job, it will mean moving to London;
He meant to telephone you yesterday but he couldn’t.

After “to stop”, the infinitive means “a break or pause, in order to do something”,
and the use of the gerund means “a complete stop of the action”:
Every half an hour I stop work to smoke a cigarette; You really must stop smoking.
THE GERUND OR INFINITIVE AFTER CERTAIN VERBS AND VERBAL PHRASES. .
After a number of verbs and verbal phrases either the gerund or the full infinitive may occur. To
begin, to intend, to hate, to permit, to try, to recollect, to start, can’t bear, to prefer, to allow, to propose, to
go on, to continue, to love, to remember, to advise, to mean, to attempt, to like, to regret, to be afraid, to
recommend.
The -ing as a Gerund All the uses of a noun.
- Preceded by “the” or “a”: Every morning the singing of birds wakes me up. -
Preceded by the possessive form of a personal pronoun or a noun referring to a
person: I’ll never forget his imitating of the headmaster.
-It may have a plural with -s: He used to watch the hangings of those he had condemned.
His comings and goings, sayings and doings . -
It may have a genitive -s or possessive pronoun: (Chiefly before sake) Reading for reading’s sake
-Preceded by nouns in the possessive case. In formal English, nouns denoting persons are
in the possessive case with gerunds, IN informal English the genitive is usually dropped:
He couldn’t understand my mother’s interfering/ my mother
After to begin, to start, and to continue either infinitive or gerund without

any difference in meaning, but

- if the verb following “to begin” or “to start” is a verb of “knowing” or “understanding”
it is put into the infinitive: I have begun working.; I have begun to work; I began to understand.

- After to hate, to like, to dislike and to prefer the infinitive is mostly used with
reference to a special occasion, whereas the gerund is more appropriate to a general
statement: She likes her children to go to the dentist twice a year; She hates driving fast.

- After to permit, to allow, to advise and to recommend the infinitive is used if the
person concerned is mentioned; if the person is not mentioned the gerund is used :
I don’t allow my pupils to smoke; I don’t allow smoking in the classroom.