T he Infinitive Phrase

Recognize an infinitive phrase when you see one.

An infinitive phrase will begin with an infinitive [to + simple form of the verb]. It will include objects and/or modifiers. Here are some examples:
To smash a spider To kick the ball past the dazed goalie To lick the grease from his shiny fingers despite the disapproving glances of his girlfriend Gloria

Infinitive phrases can function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. Look at these examples:
To finish her shift without spilling another pizza into a customer's lap is Michelle's only goal tonight.

To finish her shift without spilling another pizza into a customer's lap functions as a noun because it is the subject of the sentence.
Lakesha hopes to win the approval of her mother by switching her major from fine arts to pre-med.

To win the approval of her mother functions as a noun because it is the direct object for the verb hopes.
The best way to survive Dr. Peterson's boring history lectures is a sharp pencil to stab in your thigh if you catch yourself drifting off.

To survive Dr. Peterson's boring history lectures functions as an adjective because it modifies way.
Kelvin, an aspiring comic book artist, is taking Anatomy and Physiology this semester to understand the interplay of muscle and bone in the human body.

To understand the interplay of muscle and bone in the human body functions as an adverb because it explains why Kelvin is taking the class.

Punctuate an infinitive phrase correctly.

When an infinitive phrase introduces a main clause, separate the two sentence components with a comma. The pattern looks like this:
INFINITIVE PHRASE

+,+

MAIN CLAUSE

Read this example:

To avoid burning another bag of popcorn, Brendan pressed his nose against the microwave door, sniffing suspiciously.

When an infinitive phrase breaks the flow of a main clause, use a comma both before and after the interrupter. The pattern looks like this:
START OF MAIN CLAUSE CLAUSE

+,+

INTERRUPTER

+,+

END OF MAIN

Here is an example:
Those basketball shoes, to be perfectly honest, do not complement the suit you are planning to wear to the interview.

When an infinitive phrase concludes a main clause, you need no punctuation to connect the two sentence parts. The pattern looks like this:

MAIN

CLAUSE + +

INFINITIVE PHRASE

Check out this example:

Janice and her friends went to the mall to flirt with the cute guys who congregate at the food court.

Parts of a Sentence: Infinitive Phrases

SHARE THIS PAGE A phrase is a group of words that forms a unit simpler than a sentence. Unlike a sentence, or clause, a phrase does not contain both a subject and a finite (conjugated) verb. When building sentences, we use many types of phrases. This article focuses on infinitive phrases.

What is an infinitive?
An infinitive is a type of verbal. (A verbal is a verb form that looks like a verb but does not act as a finite verb in a sentence.) An infinitive is the basic form of a verb, usually with to in front of it: to go, to stay, to be. Infinitives act as nouns, adjectives or adverbs: Larissa wants to leave. (noun, object of verb wants) I can show you the way to go. (adjective modifying noun way) To exit, please turn to your left. (adverb modifying verb turn)

What is an infinitive phrase?

An infinitive phrase is an infinitive with attached words. For example, an infinitive may take an object: Larissa wants to leave the concert. (infinitive to leave + object the concert) An infinitive can also have modifiers such as adverbs or prepositional phrases: I can show you the way to reach the exit from here. (infinitive to reach + object the exit + prepositional phrase from here)

To exit quickly, please turn to your left. (infinitive to exit + adverb quickly) An infinitive with one or more objects or modifiers forms an infinitive phrase. Infinitive phrases may have their own subjects. The subject of an infinitive phrase is in the object form: Yuri helped him to count the money. Alison allowed me to drive her Porsche. Sometimes the word to is left out: Yuri helped him count the money. Alison let me drive her Porsche. An infinitive without to is called a bare infinitive.

Can an infinitive change its form?

Yes, we can use different forms of the infinitive to show different times: An avid skier, Roberta appeared to be praying for snow. (She was praying when the speaker saw her.) Marty seems to have forgotten his wallet. (He forgot it earlier, before the speaker made this comment.) The tenant is thought to have been cooking at the time of the fire. (The tenant was cooking before investigators drew this conclusion.) Infinitives can also be in a passive form: The roof needs to be repaired. This man claims to have been abducted by aliens.

In a previous post, we talked aboutverbals words that look like verbs, but act like other parts of speech. We learned that there are three kinds of verbals: participles (verbals acting like adjectives), gerunds (verbals acting like nouns), and infinitives (verbals with toand acting like nouns, adjectives or adverbs). Sometimes verbals dont appear alone. They often come with modifiers or objects. These word groups are called verbal phrases. Because there are three kinds of verbals, there are also three kinds of verbal phrases: participial phrases, gerund phrases, and infinitive phrases.

PARTICIPIAL PHRASES A participial phrase is a participle plus its modifiers or objects. participle + adverb: Limping painfully, Ivan crossed the finish line. participle + modifying phrase: The hood of the convertible, scratched and dented in several places, required expensive repairs. participle + direct object: Swallowing my words, I listened politely to the bosss reprimand. Notice that the participial phrases above all modify a noun or a pronoun. That means they are adjectival phrases phrases that do the job of an adjective. For example, limping painfully modifies Ivan, scratched and dented in several places modifies hood, and swallowing my words modifies the pronoun I. Participial phrases, therefore, are also a kind of adjectival phrase.

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GERUND PHRASES A gerund plus its modifiers or objects is called a gerund phrase. A gerund phrase works all together just like a single noun. gerund + adjective: The babys loud crying kept me up all night. gerund + prep. phrase: Toms talent is standing on one foot. gerund + adverb: I avoided delay by acting instinctively. gerund + direct object: Saving money takes discipline. gerund + indirect/direct object: He spent the day giving Ted a hand. Because gerund phrases always act like nouns, they are also considered a kind of noun phrase. INFINITIVE PHRASES An infinitive phrase is an infinitive plus its modifiers or objects all acting together as a single part of speech. infinitive + adverb: To live simply is my goal.

infinitive + prep. phrase: This is the shortest route to take to Richmond. infinitive + direct object: I began running to lose weight. Infinitive phrases, like simple infinitives, can be used like nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. Notice in the examples above, to live simply works like a noun and is the subject of the sentence. To take to Richmond functions like an adjective, modifying route. And to lose weight works like an adverb, modifying the verb began. That means an infinitive phrase can either be a noun phrase, an adjectival phrase, or an adverbial phrase, depending on its function in the sentence. Fortunately, verbals and verbal phrases are easier to use than to explain. Most of us use them all the time in our speech and writing. Using them correctly is more important than being able to identify them (There are five verbals in this paragraph. Can you spot them?). *****

2.1.2. Nominal post-modification The following syntagms and word classes are found in nominal post-modification:

1. Finite clauses; these can appear on the one hand in the function of appositions after head-nouns such as chance, doubt, fact, hope, rumour etc., e.g. the chance that he might win, the rumour that the President will resign. On the other hand, they can appear as relative clauses with a nominal or adverbial antecedent, e.g. the team who won, the car (which) they bought; the hotel where we stayed. 2. Non-finite clauses; these are infinitive and verbal ed and ing forms. The infinitives occur as to infinitives, with or without a subject (introduced by for). In both cases, they, like the finite clauses, appear in the function of appositions and relative clauses. (For...) to infinitives which function as appositives occur after head-nouns such as call, move, need, plan, tendency etc., e.g. the need (for the law) to be precise, the tendency (for planners) to neglect environmental factors. (For...) to infinitives which function like relative clauses have the same types of antecedent as finite relative clauses, e.g. the man to help you, the question (for you) to ask, the place (for tourists) to relax. Verbal ed and ing forms occur as non-finite components of the passive, the have tense forms and the expanded form, as well as participles. It is important to make this distinction with regard to the ing forms. There are participial ing forms such as belonging and containing, which cannot be interpreted as non-finite components of an expanded form, e.g. the bottle containing water (*the

bottle is containing water), the boys running across the street (the boys are running across the street); the lecture given by a colleague. 3. Prepositions and prepositional phrases; locative prepositions which appear as nominal post-modifiers are, for example, above, below, inside, underneath, within - the sky above, the enemy within. Prepositional phrases are frequently used in post-position. Various classes of locative, temporal etc. prepositions occur, e.g. about, before, concerning, for, till - the time before the meeting, the plan for his release. 4. Adverbs; there are locative and temporal adverbs: everywhere, indoors, upstairs, today, - the bedroom upstairs, the trouble today. 5. Adjectives; there are adjectives describing a state which is temporary and which may change, e.g. available, evident, interested, missing, present - the money available, the information missing. 6. Nouns; in the literature, the post-modification of nouns by nouns is treated as apposition, e.g. by Quirk et al. (1985: chapter 17.65). Examples of this are: our friend Walter, Kermit the frog. On the one hand, the content expressed by nominal post-modification can determine the way the head-noun is understood by the hearer. This case is known as restrictive post-modification. The examples given in this section are of this type. On the other hand, nominal post-modification can give additional information which, although it does not determine how the head-noun is understood, nevertheless contains details which enhance and extend it. This is known as non-restrictive post-modification. There are various terms for the distinction between restrictive and non-restrictive, such as appositive/ non-appositive,necessary/ unnecessary. The division into restrictive and non-restrictive is most familiar with reference to relative clauses, but it occurs with all (post-) modifiers, cf. Quirk et al. (1985: chapter 17.3-6).

Post modifier is a word or a group of words which come after the head word of a noun phrase. The types of post modifier are as follows: - Single words

e.g. the boy here, the man outside, the girl there, etc. det. H post.m det. H post.m. det. H post.m - Prepositional phrase (PP) Prepositional phrases are groups of words which begins with a preposition. Prepositional phrase can be a preposition + noun or Preposition + noun phrase. the common formula of prepositional phrase is as follows: P.P. = Prep. + N/NP. PP = Prepositional phrase Prep. = Preposition N = Noun NP = Noun Phrase The following are prepositions:

in, on, at, for, from, to, under, above, by, with, without, near, after, before. beside, of, besides, etc.
The following are prepositional phrases: at home, in the house, to school, with my friends, beside my house,etc. The examples of prepositional phrases as modifiers are as follows: The students in this class, The books on the table, The windows of my house det. H Post.m (pp) det. H post.m (PP) det. H post.m (PP) - Adjective clause (adj.CL) A clause is a group of words which has a subject and a finite verb. An adjective clause is a clause which functions as an adjective or a clause which modifies the noun in front of it. e.g. The man who teaches English, The book which you bought det. H post.m (adj.Cl) det. H post.m (adj. Cl)

- Present participial Phrase/Ving (pres.p)

e.g. The man standing there, the student sleeping in my room. Det. H Post.m. (pres.p) det H Post.m. (pres.p) - Past participial Phrase/V.3 (past.P) e.g. The play written by Shakespeare , The car made in Japan det. H post.m (past.p) det H post. M (past.p) - To Infinitive Phrase e.g. the opportunity to get a job det. H post. M (to inf.phr) Uses of the to-infinitive "The various uses of the to-infinitive: - verb + object (noun/pronoun) + to-infinitive Ashima asked Tarun to wait for her. - adjectives + to-infinitive My parents will be happy to meet you. - verbs + to-infinitive Dolly wanted to buy that green dress. - nouns/pronouns + to-infinitive The child wanted a toy to play with. The to-infinitive is also used to shorten sentences and to join sentences." (Paramita Ray and Meenakshi Puri, Longman English Grammar 6, rev. ed. Pearson, 2007) "The to-infinitive (or a to-infinitive clause) is used: after many catenative verbs: I want to know as a nominal: To know all is to forgive all as an adverbial clause: Pull tab to open as a post-modifier: a book to read, nothing to do as an adjective complement: nice to know, hard to imagine."