Infinitive (
abbreviated ) is a
linguistics term for certain
verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as
non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is derived from
Late Latin ''
odusinfinitivus'', a derivative of ''infinitus'' meaning "unlimited".
In traditional descriptions of
English, the infinitive is the basic
dictionary form of a verb when used non-finitely, with or without the
particle ''to''. Thus ''to go'' is an infinitive, as is ''go'' in a sentence like "I must go there" (but not in "I go there", where it is a
finite verb). The form without ''to'' is called the bare infinitive, and the form with ''to'' is called the full infinitive or to-infinitive.
In many other languages the infinitive is a distinct single word, often with a characteristic
inflective
In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and definit ...
ending, like ''morir'' ("
odie") in
Spanish, ''manger'' ("
oeat") in
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, ''portare'' ("
ocarry") in
Latin and
Italian, ''lieben'' ("
olove") in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
, ' (''chitat, "
oread") in
Russian, etc. However, some languages have no infinitive forms. Many
Native American languages,
Arabic,
Asian languages such as
Japanese, and some languages in
Africa and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
do not have direct equivalents to infinitives or
verbal nouns. Instead, they use
finite verb forms in ordinary clauses or various special constructions.
Being a verb, an infinitive may take
object
Object may refer to:
General meanings
* Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept
** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place
** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter
* Goal, an ai ...
s and other complements and modifiers to form a
verb phrase (called an infinitive phrase). Like other non-finite verb forms (like
participles,
converbs,
gerunds and
gerundives), infinitives do not generally have an expressed
subject
Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to:
Philosophy
*''Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing
**Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective cons ...
; thus an infinitive verb phrase also constitutes a complete
non-finite clause
In linguistics, a non-finite clause is a dependent or embedded clause that represents a state or event in the same way no matter whether it takes place before, during, or after text production. In this sense, a non-finite dependent clause represe ...
, called an infinitive (infinitival) clause. Such phrases or clauses may play a variety of roles within sentences, often being
nouns (for example being the subject of a sentence or being a complement of another verb), and sometimes being
adverbs or other types of modifier. Many verb forms known as infinitives differ from
gerunds (verbal nouns) in that they do not inflect for
case
Case or CASE may refer to:
Containers
* Case (goods), a package of related merchandise
* Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component
* Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books
* Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to c ...
or occur in
adpositional phrase
An adpositional phrase, in linguistics, is a syntactic category that includes ''prepositional phrases'', ''postpositional phrases'', and ''circumpositional phrases''. Adpositional phrases contain an adposition (preposition, postposition, or circ ...
s. Instead, infinitives often originate in earlier inflectional forms of verbal nouns. Unlike finite verbs, infinitives are not usually inflected for
tense,
person, etc. either, although some degree of inflection sometimes occurs; for example Latin has distinct
active and passive infinitives.
Phrases and clauses
An ''infinitive phrase'' is a
verb phrase constructed with the verb in infinitive form. This consists of the verb together with its
object
Object may refer to:
General meanings
* Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept
** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place
** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter
* Goal, an ai ...
s and other
complements and
modifiers. Some examples of infinitive phrases in English are given below – these may be based on either the full infinitive (introduced by the
particle ''to'') or the bare infinitive (without the particle ''to'').
*(to) sleep
*(to) write ten letters
*(to) go to the store for a pound of sugar
Infinitive phrases often have an implied
grammatical subject making them effectively
clause
In language, a clause is a constituent that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase composed of a verb with ...
s rather than phrases. Such ''infinitive clauses'' or ''infinitival clauses'', are one of several kinds of
non-finite clause
In linguistics, a non-finite clause is a dependent or embedded clause that represents a state or event in the same way no matter whether it takes place before, during, or after text production. In this sense, a non-finite dependent clause represe ...
. They can play various grammatical roles like a
constituent
Constituent or constituency may refer to:
Politics
* An individual voter within an electoral district, state, community, or organization
* Advocacy group or constituency
* Constituent assembly
* Constituencies of Namibia
Other meanings
* Const ...
of a larger clause or sentence; for example it may form a
noun phrase or
adverb. Infinitival clauses may be embedded within each other in complex ways, like in the sentence:
*I want to tell you that John Welborn is going to get married to Blair.
Here the infinitival clause ''to get married'' is contained within the finite
dependent clause
A subordinate clause, dependent clause, subclause, or embedded clause is a clause that is embedded within a complex sentence. For instance, in the English sentence "I know that Bette is a dolphin", the clause "that Bette is a dolphin" occurs as t ...
''that John Welborn is going to get married to Blair''; this in turn is contained within another infinitival clause, which is contained in the finite
independent clause (the whole sentence).
The grammatical structure of an infinitival clause may differ from that of a corresponding finite clause. For example, in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
, the infinitive form of the verb usually goes to the end of its clause, whereas a finite verb (in an independent clause) typically comes in
second position.
Clauses with implicit subject in the objective case
Following certain verbs or prepositions, infinitives commonly ''do'' have an implicit subject, e.g.,
*I want to eat them as dinner.
*For him to fail now would be a disappointment.
As these examples illustrate, the implicit subject of the infinitive occurs in the
objective case (them, him) in contrast to the
nominative case that occurs with a finite verb, e.g., "They ate their dinner."
Such
accusative and infinitive In grammar, accusative and infinitive is the name for a syntactic construction of Latin language, Latin and Greek language, Greek, also found in various forms in other languages such as English language, English and Spanish language, Spanish. In thi ...
constructions are present in
Latin and
Ancient Greek, as well as many modern languages. The atypical case regarding the implicit subject of an infinitive is an example of
exceptional case-marking Exceptional case-marking (ECM), in linguistics, is a phenomenon in which the subject of an embedded infinitival verb seems to appear in a superordinate clause and, if it is a pronoun, is unexpectedly marked with object case morphology (''him'' not ' ...
. As shown in the above examples, the object of the transitive verb "want" and the preposition "for" allude to their respective pronouns' subjective role within the clauses.
Marking for tense, aspect and voice
In some languages, infinitives may be marked for
grammatical categories
In linguistics, a grammatical category or grammatical feature is a property of items within the grammar of a language. Within each category there are two or more possible values (sometimes called grammemes), which are normally mutually exclusiv ...
like
voice,
aspect, and to some extent
tense. This may be done by
inflection, as with the Latin perfect and passive infinitives, or by
periphrasis
In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one infl ...
(with the use of
auxiliary verbs), as with the Latin future infinitives or the English perfect and progressive infinitives.
Latin has present, perfect and future infinitives, with active and
passive forms of each. For details see .
English has infinitive constructions that are marked (periphrastically) for aspect:
perfect
Perfect commonly refers to:
* Perfection, completeness, excellence
* Perfect (grammar), a grammatical category in some languages
Perfect may also refer to:
Film
* Perfect (1985 film), ''Perfect'' (1985 film), a romantic drama
* Perfect (2018 f ...
,
progressive
Progressive may refer to:
Politics
* Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform
** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context
* Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...
(continuous), or a combination of the two (
perfect progressive
This article describes the uses of various verb forms in modern standard English language. This includes:
* Finite verb forms such as ''go'', ''goes'' and ''went''
* Nonfinite forms such as ''(to) go'', ''going'' and ''gone''
* Combinations of s ...
). These can also be marked for
passive voice (as can the plain infinitive):
*''(to) eat'' (plain infinitive, active)
*''(to) be eaten'' (passive)
*''(to) have eaten'' (perfect active)
*''(to) have been eaten'' (perfect passive)
*''(to) be eating'' (progressive active)
*''(to) be being eaten'' (progressive passive)
*''(to) have been eating'' (perfect progressive active)
*''(to) have been being eaten'' (perfect progressive passive, not often used)
Further constructions can be made with other auxiliary-like expressions, like ''(to) be
going to eat'' or ''(to) be
about to eat'', which have future meaning. For more examples of the above types of construction, see .
Perfect infinitives are also found in other European languages that have
perfect
Perfect commonly refers to:
* Perfection, completeness, excellence
* Perfect (grammar), a grammatical category in some languages
Perfect may also refer to:
Film
* Perfect (1985 film), ''Perfect'' (1985 film), a romantic drama
* Perfect (2018 f ...
forms with auxiliaries similarly to English. For example, ''avoir mangé'' means "(to) have eaten" in French.
English
Regarding
English, the term "infinitive" is traditionally applied to the unmarked form of the verb (the
"plain form") when it forms a
non-finite verb, whether or not introduced by the
particle ''to''. Hence ''sit'' and ''to sit'', as used in the following sentences, would each be considered an infinitive:
* I can sit here all day.
* I want to sit on the other chair.
The form without ''to'' is called the ''bare infinitive''; the form introduced by ''to'' is called the ''full infinitive'' or ''to-infinitive''.
The other non-finite verb forms in English are the
gerund or present
participle (the ''-ing'' form), and the
past participle
In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
– these are not considered infinitives. Moreover, the unmarked form of the verb is not considered an infinitive when it forms a
finite verb: like a present
indicative ("I ''sit'' every day"),
subjunctive
The subjunctive (also known as conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of the utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude towards it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality ...
("I suggest that he ''sit''"), or
imperative ("''Sit'' down!"). (For some
irregular verbs
A regular verb is any verb whose conjugation follows the typical pattern, or one of the typical patterns, of the language to which it belongs. A verb whose conjugation follows a different pattern is called an irregular verb. This is one instance ...
the form of the infinitive coincides additionally with that of the past tense and/or past participle, like in the case of ''put''.)
Certain
auxiliary verbs are
defective
Defective may refer to::
*Defective matrix, in algebra
*Defective verb, in linguistics
*Defective, or ''haser'', in Hebrew orthography, a spelling variant that does not include mater lectionis
*Something presenting an anomaly, such as a product de ...
in that they do not have infinitives (or any other non-finite forms). This applies to the
modal verbs (''can'', ''must'', etc.), as well as certain related auxiliaries like the ''had'' of ''
had better
The English modal verbs are a subset of the English auxiliary verbs used mostly to express modality (properties such as possibility, obligation, etc.). They can be distinguished from other verbs by their defectiveness (they do not have participle ...
'' and the ''used'' of ''
used to''. (
Periphrases can be employed instead in some cases, like ''(to) be able to'' for ''can'', and ''(to) have to'' for ''must''.) It also applies to the auxiliary ''do'', like used in questions, negatives and emphasis like described under
''do''-support. (Infinitives are
negated
In logic, negation, also called the logical complement, is an operation that takes a proposition P to another proposition "not P", written \neg P, \mathord P or \overline. It is interpreted intuitively as being true when P is false, and false ...
by simply preceding them with ''not''. Of course the verb ''do'' when forming a main verb can appear in the infinitive.) However, the auxiliary verbs ''have'' (used to form the
perfect
Perfect commonly refers to:
* Perfection, completeness, excellence
* Perfect (grammar), a grammatical category in some languages
Perfect may also refer to:
Film
* Perfect (1985 film), ''Perfect'' (1985 film), a romantic drama
* Perfect (2018 f ...
) and ''be'' (used to form the
passive voice and
continuous aspect) both commonly appear in the infinitive: "I should have finished by now"; "It's thought to have been a burial site"; "Let him be released"; "I hope to be working tomorrow."
Huddleston Huddleston is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Alex Huddleston (born 1986), American mixed martial artist
* Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr (1831–1919), British novelist
* Arthur Huddleston (1880–1948), British colonial civi ...
and
Pullum's ''Cambridge Grammar of the English Language'' (2002) does not use the notion of the "infinitive" ("there is no form in the English verb paradigm called 'the infinitive'"), only that of the ''infinitival
clause
In language, a clause is a constituent that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase composed of a verb with ...
'', noting that English uses the same form of the verb, the ''plain form'', in infinitival clauses that it uses in imperative and present-subjunctive clauses.
A matter of controversy among
prescriptive grammarians and style writers has been the appropriateness of separating the two words of the ''to''-infinitive (as in "I expect ''to'' happily ''sit'' here"). For details of this, see
split infinitive
A split infinitive is a grammatical construction in which an adverb or adverbial phrase separates the "to" and "infinitive" constituents of what was traditionally called the full infinitive, but is more commonly known in modern linguistics as the ...
. Opposing
linguistic theories typically do not consider the ''to''-infinitive a distinct
constituent
Constituent or constituency may refer to:
Politics
* An individual voter within an electoral district, state, community, or organization
* Advocacy group or constituency
* Constituent assembly
* Constituencies of Namibia
Other meanings
* Const ...
, instead regarding the scope of the particle ''to'' as an entire verb phrase; thus, ''to buy a car'' is parsed like ''
to uy [a car'', not like ''
[to buy">_car.html" ;"title="uy [a car">uy [a car'', not like ''
[to buy[a car]''.
Uses of the infinitive
The bare infinitive and the ''to''-infinitive have a variety of uses in English. The two forms are mostly in complementary distribution – certain contexts call for one, and certain contexts for the other; they are not normally interchangeable, except in occasional instances like after the verb ''help'', where either can be used.
The main uses of infinitives (or infinitive phrases) are as follows:
*As
complements of other verbs. The bare infinitive form is a complement of the
dummy auxiliary ''do'', most
modal auxiliary verbs, verbs of perception like ''see'', ''watch'' and ''hear'' (after a direct object), and the verbs of permission or causation ''make'', ''bid'', ''let'', and ''have'' (also after a direct object). The ''to''-infinitive is used after many transitive verbs like ''want'', ''aim'', ''like'', ''fail'', etc., and as
an object complement of a direct object regarding verbs like ''want'', ''convince'', ''aim'', etc.
*In various particular expressions, like ''
had better
The English modal verbs are a subset of the English auxiliary verbs used mostly to express modality (properties such as possibility, obligation, etc.). They can be distinguished from other verbs by their defectiveness (they do not have participle ...
'' and ''
would rather
This article describes the uses of various verb forms in modern standard English language. This includes:
* Finite verb forms such as ''go'', ''goes'' and ''went''
* Nonfinite forms such as ''(to) go'', ''going'' and ''gone''
* Combinations of s ...
'' (with bare infinitive), ''in order to'', ''as if to'', ''
am to
The ''going-to'' future is a grammar, grammatical construction used in English grammar, English to refer to various types of future occurrences. It is made using appropriate forms of the expression ''to be going to''.Fleischman, Suzanne, ''The Fu ...
/is to/are to''.
*As a noun phrase, expressing its action or state in an abstract, general way, forming the
subject
Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to:
Philosophy
*''Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing
**Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective cons ...
of a clause or a
predicative expression
A predicative expression (or just predicative) is part of a clause predicate, and is an expression that typically follows a copula (or linking verb), e.g. ''be'', ''seem'', ''appear'', or that appears as a second complement of a certain type of v ...
: "To err is human"; "To know me is to love me". The bare infinitive can be used in such sentences like "What you should do is make a list." A common construction with the ''to''-infinitive involves a
dummy pronoun subject (''it''), with the infinitive phrase placed after the predicate: "It was nice to meet you."
*
Adverbially, to express purpose, intent or result, as the ''to''-infinitive can have the meaning of ''in order to'', e.g. "I closed the door ''in order'' to block out any noise."
*As a modifier of a noun or adjective. This may relate to the meaning of the noun or adjective ("a request to see someone"; "keen to get on"), or it may form a type of
non-finite relative clause, like in "the man to save us"; "the method to use"; "nice to listen to".
*In
elliptical
Elliptical may mean:
* having the shape of an ellipse, or more broadly, any oval shape
** in botany, having an elliptic leaf shape
** of aircraft wings, having an elliptical planform
* characterised by ellipsis (the omission of words), or by conc ...
questions (direct or indirect): "I don't know where to go." After ''why'' the bare infinitive is used: "Why reveal it?"
The infinitive is also the usual
dictionary form or citation form of a verb. The form listed in dictionaries is the bare infinitive, although the ''to''-infinitive is often used in referring to verbs or in defining other verbs: "The word 'amble' means 'to walk slowly'"; "How do we conjugate the verb ''to go''?"
For further detail and examples of the uses of infinitives in English, see
Bare infinitive and
''To''-infinitive in the article on uses of English verb forms.
Other Germanic languages
The original
Proto-Germanic ending
End, END, Ending, or variation, may refer to:
End
*In mathematics:
**End (category theory)
**End (topology)
**End (graph theory)
** End (group theory) (a subcase of the previous)
**End (endomorphism)
*In sports and games
**End (gridiron football) ...
of the infinitive was ''-an'', with verbs derived from other words ending in ''-jan'' or ''-janan''.
In
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
it is ''-en'' ("sagen"), with ''-eln'' or ''-ern'' endings on a few words based on -l or -r roots ("segeln", "ändern"). The use of ''
zu'' with infinitives is similar to English ''to'', but is less frequent than in English. German infinitives can form nouns, often expressing abstractions of the action, in which case they are of neuter gender: ''das Essen'' means ''the eating'', but also ''the food''.
In
Dutch infinitives also end in ''-en'' (''zeggen'' — ''to say''), sometimes used with ''te'' similar to English ''to'', e.g., "Het is niet moeilijk te begrijpen" → "It is not hard to understand." The few verbs with stems ending in ''-a'' have infinitives in -n (''gaan'' — ''to go'', ''slaan'' — ''to hit'').
Afrikaans has lost the distinction between the infinitive and present forms of verbs, with the exception of the verbs "wees" (to be), which admits the present form "is", and the verb "hê" (to have), whose present form is "het".
In North Germanic languages the final ''-n'' was lost from the infinitive as early as 500–540 AD, reducing the suffix to ''-a''. Later it has been further reduced to ''-e'' in Danish and some Norwegian dialects (including the written majority language
bokmål). In the majority of Eastern Norwegian dialects and a few bordering Western Swedish dialects the reduction to ''-e'' was only partial, leaving some infinitives in ''-a'' and others in ''-e'' (å laga vs. å kaste). In northern parts of Norway the infinitive suffix is completely lost (å lag’ vs. å kast’) or only the ''-a'' is kept (å laga vs. å kast’). The infinitives of these languages are inflected for passive voice through the addition of ''-s'' or ''-st'' to the active form. This suffix appearance in Old Norse was a contraction of ''mik'' (“me”, forming ''-mk'') or ''sik'' (reflexive pronoun, forming ''-sk'') and was originally expressing reflexive actions: (hann) ''kallar'' (“
ecalls”) + ''-sik'' (“himself”) > (hann) ''kallask'' (“
ecalls himself”). The suffixes ''-mk'' and ''-sk'' later merged to ''-s'', which evolved to ''-st'' in the western dialects. The loss or reduction of ''-a'' in active voice in Norwegian did not occur in the passive forms (''-ast'', ''-as''), except for some dialects that have ''-es''. The other North Germanic languages have the same vowel in both forms.
Latin and Romance languages
The formation of the infinitive in the
Romance languages reflects that in their ancestor,
Latin, almost all verbs had an infinitive ending with ''-re'' (preceded by one of various thematic vowels). For example, in
Italian infinitives end in ''-are'', ''-ere'', ''-rre'' (rare), or ''-ire'' (which is still identical to the Latin forms), and in ''-arsi'', ''-ersi'', ''-rsi'', ''-irsi'' for the reflexive forms. In
Spanish and
Portuguese, infinitives end in ''-ar'', ''-er'', or ''-ir'' (
Spanish also has reflexive forms in ''-arse'', ''-erse'', ''-irse''), while similarly in
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
they typically end in ''-re'', ''-er'', ''oir'', and ''-ir''. In
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
, both short and long-form infinitives exist; the so-called "long infinitives" end in ''-are, -ere, -ire'' and in modern speech are used exclusively as verbal nouns, while there are a few verbs that cannot be converted into the
nominal
Nominal may refer to:
Linguistics and grammar
* Nominal (linguistics), one of the parts of speech
* Nominal, the adjectival form of "noun", as in "nominal agreement" (= "noun agreement")
* Nominal sentence, a sentence without a finite verb
* Nou ...
long infinitive. The "short infinitives" used in verbal contexts (e.g., after an auxiliary verb) have the endings ''-a'',''-ea'', ''-e'', and ''-i'' (basically removing the ending in "-re"). In Romanian, the infinitive is usually replaced by a clause containing the conjunction ''să'' plus the subjunctive mood. The only verb that is modal in common modern Romanian is the verb ''a putea'', to be able to. However, in popular speech the infinitive after ''a putea'' is also increasingly replaced by the subjunctive.
In all Romance languages, infinitives can also form nouns.
Latin infinitives challenged several of the generalizations about infinitives. They did inflect for
voice (''amare'', "to love", ''amari'', to be loved) and for tense (''amare'', "to love", ''amavisse'', "to have loved"), and allowed for an overt expression of the subject (''video Socratem currere'', "I see Socrates running"). See .
Romance languages inherited from Latin the possibility of an overt expression of the subject (as in Italian ''vedo Socrate correre''). Moreover, the "inflected infinitive" (or "personal infinitive") found in Portuguese and
Galician inflects for person and number. These, alongside Sardinian, are the only
Indo-European languages that allow infinitives to take person and number endings. This helps to make infinitive clauses very common in these languages; for example, the English finite clause ''in order that you/she/we have...'' would be translated to Portuguese like ''para teres/ela ter/termos...'' (Portuguese is a
null-subject language). The Portuguese personal infinitive has no proper tenses, only aspects (imperfect and perfect), but tenses can be expressed using
periphrastic
In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one infl ...
structures. For instance, ''"even though you sing/have sung/are going to sing"'' could be translated to ''"apesar de cantares/teres cantado/ires cantar"''.
Other Romance languages (including Spanish, Romanian, Catalan, and some Italian dialects) allow uninflected infinitives to combine with overt nominative subjects. For example, Spanish ''al abrir yo los ojos'' ("when I opened my eyes") or ''sin yo saberlo'' ("without my knowing about it").
Hellenic languages
Ancient Greek
In
Ancient Greek the infinitive has four tenses (present, future, aorist, perfect) and three voices (active, middle, passive). Present and perfect have the same infinitive for both middle and passive, while future and aorist have separate middle and passive forms.
Thematic verbs form present active infinitives by adding to the stem the thematic vowel and the infinitive ending , and contracts to , e.g., . Athematic verbs, and perfect actives and aorist passives, add the suffix instead, e.g., . In the middle and passive, the present middle infinitive ending is , e.g., and most tenses of thematic verbs add an additional between the ending and the stem, e.g., .
Modern Greek
The infinitive ''per se'' does not exist in Modern Greek. To see this, consider the
ancient Greek ''ἐθέλω γράφειν'' “I want to write”. In
modern Greek this becomes ''θέλω
να γράψω'' “I want
that I write”. In modern Greek, the infinitive has thus changed form and function and is used mainly in the formation of periphrastic tense forms and not with an article or alone. Instead of the Ancient Greek infinitive system ''γράφειν, γράψειν, γράψαι, γεγραφέναι'', Modern Greek uses only the form ''γράψει'', a development of the ancient Greek aorist infinitive ''γράψαι''. This form is also invariable. The modern Greek infinitive has only two forms according to voice: for example, ''γράψει'' for the active voice and ''γραφ(τ)εί'' for the passive voice (coming from the ancient passive aorist infinitive ''γραφῆναι'').
Balto-Slavic languages
The infinitive in
Russian usually ends in ''-t’'' (ть) preceded by a
thematic vowel
In Indo-European studies, a thematic vowel or theme vowel is the vowel or from ablaut placed before the ending of a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) word. Nouns, adjectives, and verbs in the Indo-European languages with this vowel are thematic, and tho ...
, or ''-ti'' (ти), if not preceded by one; some verbs have a stem ending in a consonant and change the ''t'' to ''č’'', like ''*mogt’ → moč’'' (*могть → мочь) "can". Some other
Balto-Slavic languages have the infinitive typically ending in, for example, ''-ć'' (sometimes ''-c'') in
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
, ''-t’'' in
Slovak, ''-t'' (formerly ''-ti'') in
Czech and
Latvian (with a handful ending in -s on the latter), ''-ty'' (-ти) in
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
, -ць (''-ts) in
Belarusian
Belarusian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to Belarus
* Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent
* A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus
* Belarusian language
* Belarusian culture
* Belarusian cuisine
* Byelor ...
. Lithuanian infinitives end in -''ti'',
Serbo-Croatian in -''ti'' or -''ći,'' and
Slovenian
Slovene or Slovenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe
* Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia
* Slovenes
The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( sl, Sloven ...
in -''ti'' or -''či.''
Serbian
Serbian may refer to:
* someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe
* someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people
* Serbian language
* Serbian names
See also
*
*
* Old Serbian (disambiguat ...
officially retains infinitives -''ti'' or -''ći'', but is more flexible than the other slavic languages in breaking the infinitive through a clause. The infinitive nevertheless remains the dictionary form.
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
and
Macedonian
Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia.
Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to:
People Modern
* Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North M ...
have lost the infinitive altogether except in a handful of frozen expressions where it is the same as the 3rd person singular aorist form. Almost all expressions where an infinitive may be used in Bulgarian are
listed here; neverthess in all cases a subordinate clause is the more usual form. For that reason, the present first-person singular conjugation is the dictionary form in Bulgarian, while Macedonian uses the third person singular form of the verb in present tense.
Hebrew
Hebrew has ''two'' infinitives, the infinitive absolute and the infinitive construct. The infinitive construct is used after prepositions and is inflected with pronominal endings to indicate its subject or object: ''bikhtōbh hassōphēr'' "when the scribe wrote", ''ahare lekhtō'' "after his going". When the infinitive construct is preceded by (''lə-'', ''li-'', ''lā-'', ''lo-'') "to", it has a similar meaning to the English ''to''-infinitive, and this is its most frequent use in Modern Hebrew. The infinitive absolute is used for verb focus and emphasis, like in ''mōth yāmūth'' (literally "a dying he will die"; figuratively, "he shall indeed/surely die").
This usage is commonplace in the
Hebrew Bible. In Modern Hebrew it is restricted to high-register literary works.
Note, however, that the ''to''-infinitive of Hebrew is not the
dictionary form; that is the third person singular past form.
Finnish
The Finnish grammatical tradition includes many non-finite forms that are generally labeled as (numbered) infinitives although many of these are functionally
converbs. To form the so-called? first infinitive, the strong form of the root (without
consonant gradation or epenthetic 'e') is used, and these changes occur:
# the root is suffixed with ''-ta/-tä'' according to
vowel harmony
In phonology, vowel harmony is an Assimilation (linguistics), assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is t ...
# consonant elision takes place if applicable, e.g., ''juoks+ta'' → ''juosta''
# assimilation of clusters violating sonority hierarchy if applicable, e.g., ''nuol+ta'' → ''nuolla'', ''sur+ta'' → ''surra''
# 't' weakens to 'd' after diphthongs, e.g., ''juo+ta'' → ''juoda''
# 't' elides if intervocalic, e.g., ''kirjoitta+ta'' → ''kirjoittaa''
As such, it is inconvenient for dictionary use, because the imperative would be closer to the root word. Nevertheless, dictionaries use the first infinitive.
There are also four other infinitives, plus a "long" form of the first:
* The long first infinitive is ''-kse-'' and must have a personal suffix appended to it. It has the general meaning of "in order to
o something
O, or o, is the fifteenth Letter (alphabet), letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in ...
e.g., ''kirjoittaakseni'' "in order for me to write
omething.
* The second infinitive is formed by replacing the final ''-a/-ä'' of the first infinitive with ''e''. It can take the inessive and instructive cases to create forms like ''kirjoittaessa'' "while writing".
* The third infinitive is formed by adding ''-ma'' to the first infinitive, which alone creates an "agent" form: ''kirjoita-'' becomes ''kirjoittama''. The third infinitive is technically a noun (denoting the act of performing some verb), so case suffixes identical to those attached to ordinary Finnish nouns allow for other expressions using the third infinitive, e.g., ''kirjoittamalla'' "by writing".
** A personal suffix can then be added to this form to indicate the ''agent participle'', such that ''kirjoittamani kirja'' = "The book that I wrote."
* The fourth infinitive adds ''-minen'' to the first to form a noun that has the connotation of "the process of
oing something, e.g., ''kirjoittaminen'' "
he process of
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
writing". It, too, can be inflected like other Finnish nouns that end in ''-nen''.
* The fifth infinitive adds ''-maisilla-'' to the first, and like the long first infinitive, must take a possessive suffix. It has to do with being "about to
o something
O, or o, is the fifteenth Letter (alphabet), letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in ...
and may also imply that the act was cut off or interrupted, e.g., ''kirjoittamaisillasi'' "you were about to write
ut something interrupted you. This form is more commonly replaced by the third infinitive in adessive case, usually also with a possessive suffix (thus ''kirjoittamallasi'').
Note that all of these must change to reflect vowel harmony, so the fifth infinitive (with a third-person suffix) of ''hypätä'' "jump" is ''hyppäämäisillään'' "he was about to jump", not ''*hyppäämaisillaan''.
Seri
The
Seri language of northwestern Mexico has infinitival forms used in two constructions (with the verb meaning 'want' and with the verb meaning 'be able'). The infinitive is formed by adding a prefix to the stem: either ''iha-'' (plus a vowel change of certain vowel-initial stems) if the complement clause is
transitive, or ''ica-'' (and no vowel change) if the complement clause is
intransitive. The infinitive shows agreement in number with the controlling subject. Examples are: ''icatax ihmiimzo'' 'I want to go', where ''icatax'' is the singular infinitive of the verb 'go' (singular root is ''-atax''), and ''icalx hamiimcajc'' 'we want to go', where ''icalx'' is the plural infinitive. Examples of the transitive infinitive: ''ihaho'' 'to see it/him/her/them' (root ''-aho''), and ''ihacta'' 'to look at it/him/her/them' (root ''-oocta'').
Translation to languages without an infinitive
In languages without an infinitive, the infinitive is translated either as a ''that''-clause or as a
verbal noun. For example, in
Literary Arabic
Literary Arabic (Arabic: ' ) may refer to:
* Classical Arabic
* Modern Standard Arabic
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of Standard language, standardized, Literary ...
the sentence "I want to write a book" is translated as either ''urīdu an aktuba kitāban'' (lit. "I want that I write a book", with a verb in the
subjunctive mood
The subjunctive (also known as conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of the utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude towards it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality ...
) or ''urīdu kitābata kitābin'' (lit. "I want the writing of a book", with the ''masdar'' or verbal noun), and in
Levantine Colloquial Arabic ''biddi aktub kitāb'' (subordinate clause with verb in subjunctive).
Even in languages that have infinitives, similar constructions are sometimes necessary where English would allow the infinitive. For example, in French the sentence "I want you to come" translates to ''Je veux que vous veniez'' (lit. "I want that you come", ''come'' being in the subjunctive mood). However, "I want to come" is simply ''Je veux venir'', using the infinitive, just as in English. In Russian, sentences such as "I want you to leave" do not use an infinitive. Rather, they use the conjunction чтобы "in order to/so that" with the past tense form (most probably remnant of subjunctive) of the verb: ''Я хочу, чтобы вы ушли'' (literally, "I want so that you left").
See also
*
Auxiliary verb
*
Finite verb
*
Gerund
*
Non-finite verb
*
Split infinitive
A split infinitive is a grammatical construction in which an adverb or adverbial phrase separates the "to" and "infinitive" constituents of what was traditionally called the full infinitive, but is more commonly known in modern linguistics as the ...
*
Verbal noun
Notes
{{Authority control
Parts of speech
Syntactic entities
Verb types