infinitive
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VIDEO FOR INFINITIVE
Who vs. Whom: Can You Answer That Plus More Grammar Questions?
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Origin of infinitive
OTHER WORDS FROM infinitive
in·fin·i·tive·ly, adverbWords nearby infinitive
MORE ABOUT INFINITIVE
What is an infinitive?
An infinitive is the basic form of a verb, having no tense and not being conjugated. In English, an infinitive is preceded by the word to.
In English, the infinitive form of the verb is the one you will see listed in dictionaries like this one. When infinitives are used in sentences, they follow auxiliary verbs, as in I should try, or function words, as in I want to sleep.
Infinitives can serve other purposes as well, such as acting like nouns (To err is human), adjectives (I have no place to sleep), or adverbs (We eat to live).
Why is infinitive important?
The first records of the term infinitive come from around 1425. It comes from the Late Latin word infīnītīvus, meaning “indefinite.” Infinitives are used in many languages, even in very old languages like Latin.
In English, infinitives are usually made of two words such as to run or to know. In other languages, infinitives are a single word, such as the Latin dare (“to give”), the French faire (“to do”), and the Spanish hablar (“to speak”). English speakers are often taught the infinitive form of a verb before learning how each verb is conjugated.
Did you know ... ?
You may have heard that in English you shouldn’t “split” the infinitive, that is, you shouldn’t put a word between to and the infinitive form of the verb. This is a false rule that came about a few hundred years ago from a desire to make English more like Latin. English is English, though, and it’s being able to split infinitives is a feature of the language, not a fault. You can read more about this in “What Is A Split Infinitive?”
What are real-life examples of infinitive?
The following chart lists some verbs in their infinitive form.
| agree | forget | love | refuse |
| choose | hope | need | seem |
| decide | intend | plan | struggle |
| expect | learn | pretend | tend |
| fail | like | promise | want |
We often use infinitives in everyday speech, though we don’t often talk about them, unless we’re talking about language.
Slight correction: "chacune des langues qu'on peut parler"
Langue is feminine, and you need to use the infinitive because it's like "to speak/can speak"— Kevin Laprise🔌🤔 (@kevlap017) July 23, 2021
Funny. The only time(s) I am ever disappointed in myself is when I stop doing a BuzzFeed quiz.
(Oh what a difference infintive vs -ing makes 🙃)https://t.co/zImfjQslnd— Platypus!!!!! (@Platypus4Ever) November 5, 2019
Quiz yourself!
True or False?
In English, an infinitive verb has no tense and has not been conjugated.
How to use infinitive in a sentence
British Dictionary definitions for infinitive
Derived forms of infinitive
infinitival (ˌɪnfɪnɪˈtaɪvəl), adjectiveinfinitively or infinitivally, adverbCultural definitions for infinitive
The simple or dictionary form of a verb: walk, think, fly, exist. Often the word to marks a verb as an infinitive: “to walk,” “to think,” “to fly,” “to exist.”