What to Know about Infinitives: English Grammar with Jennifer

Hi everyone. I'm Jennifer from English with  Jennifer. Is there someone you look up to?  

Is there someone you admire? It's easy  to admire big names in history, like  

Amelia Earhart, the American aviator, but  how about everyday people? People you know?

One person who inspires me is my 93-year-old  cousin Gina. She lives in my home state of  

Pennsylvania, and I can only hope to live  to 93 and have her energy and mental health.  

Gina's mother and my grandmother were sisters.  That makes Gina and my mother first cousins,  

and Gina's daughter and I are second cousins.  If that's too much to grasp at this moment,  

you can watch my other lesson on extended family.  Right now, we're going to focus on infinitives,  

and my amazing cousin Gina will help by supplying  us with plenty of examples. Let's get started!

An infinitive is a verb form. It uses TO +  the base verb. Take a look at these sentences.  

It's easy to admire big names in  history. I look up to my cousin Gina.

I can only hope to live to 93.

How many infinitives do you see?

There are two: to admire, to live.

I'm actually using infinitive phrases: infinitives  

plus other words. To admire big  names in history. To live to 93.

The phrase "to 93" is a prepositional  phrase: a preposition + an object.

"Look up to" is a phrasal verb. LOOK is the  verb. UP TO are the particles. Look up to whom?

Be careful not to confuse  prepositions and particles  

with infinitives. They all use the  word TO, but for different purposes.

Let's try the same task, but with different  sentences. Can you identify the infinitives?

Here are the infinitives. Again,  there are two: to age, to hear.

How are these infinitives or  infinitive phrases being used?

Sentence one uses a linking verb, IS,  and the infinitive follows. That means  

the sentence pattern is: subject + verb +  complement. "To age" is a subject complement.

The alternative is to age with difficulty.

The alternative is to age with a bad attitude.

My hope is to live as long and as well as Gina.

Subject complements define the subject.  What is the alternative? What is your hope?  

The infinitives, the subject  complements, answer those questions.

In sentence three, we have the transitive verb,  LIKE, and the infinitive follows. Like what?  

That means the sentence pattern is: subject + verb  + object. "To hear" is the object of the verb.  

What would you like to do? To hear.

I hope you recognize that in sentence two  we had a preposition followed by a gerund,  

not an infinitive. Gerunds  end in -ing. Reaction to what?  

Reaction to hearing. "Hearing" (the gerund)  is the object of the preposition TO.

There are different noun + preposition  combinations. I present some of them in  

my playlist on prepositions. If you have  familiarity with collocations that use TO,  

you won't confuse prepositions with infinitives.  The noun + preposition TO collocations include:  

a reaction to something, an alternative  to something, the key to something.

There are also adjective + preposition  combinations. Become familiar with them,  

and you won't confuse prepositions  with infinitives. Examples include:  

be dedicated to someone or something, be opposed  to something, be related to someone or something.

Let's see if you can spot the difference between  verb + preposition combinations and infinitives.

Some people may not want to confess to  wearing hand-me-downs, but I'm okay with that.  

I have some wonderful pieces of  clothing from my cousin Gina.

Where's the infinitive?

To confess.

And the prepositional phrase with TO?

To wearing.

Gina admits to being sad sometimes, but  she's always able to regain her optimism.

Again, find the infinitive and find  a combination with TO + a gerund.

Here's the infinitive: to regain.

And the prepositional phrase? To being.

So, we've learned not to confuse infinitives  with prepositions, and we've seen infinitives  

used as subject complements and direct  objects. What other uses are there?

Look again at this sentence. She's  always able to regain her optimism.

"Able" is an adjective. Many  adjectives combine with infinitives.  

Infinitives can be adjective  complements: they define the adjective.

Gina isn't afraid to speak her mind.

Gina is physically active,  but she's careful not to fall.

Anyone who meets my cousin is certain  to receive a friendly greeting.

It's easy to talk to Gina about almost anything.  Gina is likely to be famous after this video.  

I'm proud to tell you that Gina is a  talented musician. I'm lucky to know her.  

I'm unable to visit her often. I'm willing  to travel to see her and my other cousins.

Look back at this example and  you'll see a negative infinitive.  

She's careful not to fall. Use "not" before an infinitive to make it negative.  

How would you complete these  sentences with negative infinitives?

I think a good way to stay healthy is not to  isolate yourself. We need to stay connected.

And I think a wise choice is not to overeat.

My cousin Gina stays connected. She finds time to  take walks, and she greets people along the way.  

She also knows it's important to keep her  mind active, so she's been taking organ  

lessons. She already plays the accordion,  but now she's learning to play the organ.  

Find time to take walks. This is an example of  a noun followed by an infinitive. Here are other  

nouns that are followed by infinitives. The nouns  appear in different positions within the sentence,  

but the infinitives always complete the  meaning of the noun that they follow.

Gina has the ability to see the positive  side. I'm happy that I've had the chance to  

play the accordion with Gina. Her conscious  choice to stay active keeps her mind sharp.

My desire to follow her example  is genuine. There's always an  

opportunity to learn from our elders.

Gina has always had a good memory. In fact,  she plays most songs from memory. In contrast,  

I need to read music. I have trouble  memorizing. For Gina, it's easy to memorize.  

Let's pause for a moment and think about how my  last sentence could be reworded. For Gina, it's  

easy to memorize. I could place "For Gina" after  the adjective. It's easy for Gina to memorize.  

What's the true subject of the sentence?  It's not IT. IT is a placeholder.  

I could say, "To memorize is easy for Gina," but  it doesn't sound like everyday English, does it?  

That's because infinitives can be subjects,  but then the sentence sounds quite formal.  

A more common pattern is to put  IT at the front of the sentence  

and then have an infinitive follow an adjective:  it's easy for Gina to play without reading music.

It's fun to spend time with my cousin. It's  nice to catch up with her over the phone.

How would you finish these sentences?  Put your answers in the comments.

To recap so far, we've seen how infinitives can be  subjects, direct objects, and subject complements  

following a linking verb. We've  also seen how infinitives can follow  

nouns and adjectives, which are other  ways infinitives function as complements.  

Infinitives are also used in combination with  TOO and ENOUGH. Remember how I talked about  

first and second cousins? Gina, by the way,  is my first cousin once removed. Like I said,  

if that's too much to grasp at this moment, you  can watch my other lesson on extended family.  

You'll remember that TOO has a negative meaning.  There's more than you want, and that's a problem:  

too much information to grasp,  too confusing to understand.

ENOUGH is positive. The  amount or degree is all right.

Clear enough to understand.

So, the infinitives complete the meaning  of these phrases with TOO and ENOUGH.

Isn't it amazing how many ways we use infinitives?  

Well, if you've watched my lesson on noun clauses,  you'll know that we can reduce or shorten embedded  

questions with the help of infinitives -- if  they express the meaning of "should" or "could."

Gina and my grandfather taught me how to  play a couple of songs on the accordion.

Gina always knows where to go  to buy good clothes on sale.

Here's a final use of infinitives.  

I'm willing to travel 500 miles to see Gina  and her daughter (my second cousin, Diane).

So, we already talked about adjective +  infinitive combinations like "willing to travel."  

The other infinitive is "to see." I'm  explaining why I'm willing to travel.  

What would be the purpose of traveling?  To see Gina and my second cousin, Diane.  

What I'm really saying is that I'm willing  to travel in order to see my cousins.

This is an example of an infinitive of purpose.  We use "in order to" when we explain a reason.  

We can use the full form "in order to visit"  

or simply "to visit" (the infinitive),  and the purpose is understood.

Complete my sentences with infinitives of purpose.

At some point, you may wonder how to  choose between infinitives and gerunds  

because they both can be used as  subjects, direct objects, and complements.

Well, remember that gerunds are more  common as subjects, and as you've seen,  

infinitives can express a purpose. And in  general, infinitives can express intention.

My dream is to travel around the world.

My hope is to learn another language.

And as mentioned, there are many  combinations with infinitives.  

This is how vocabulary and grammar work together.  

You need to know, for example, that the noun  and verb "promise" combine with an infinitive.

I made a promise to visit again  soon. I promise to visit soon.

Some verbs can take an infinitive or a  gerund as the object, and it doesn't make a  

difference in meaning. Gina continues to play her  accordion. Gina continues playing her accordion.

She started to take organ lessons.  She started taking organ lessons.

Other verbs in this category are:  begin, can't stand, like, love, hate,  

prefer. However, other verbs can be followed  by either a gerund or an infinitive,  

and there is a difference in meaning. Here's  an example, I'll try to visit them this summer.  

This means I'll attempt to visit,  but maybe it won't work out.

Have you ever tried polka dancing? It's fun.

I'm talking about experiencing something so  that you can decide if you like it or not.  

Choose a gerund or an infinitive  to complete the sentence.

One. I appreciate having someone like Gina  to talk to Two. Gina refuses to slow down.  

Three. I miss playing the accordion with her.

For more practice, you can watch my other  lessons on gerunds and infinitives. I'll put  

the links in the video description. Okay, so we've  covered different uses of infinitives: subjects,  

direct objects, complements, and infinitives of  purpose. But we've only talked about two forms:  

infinitives and negative infinitives. There  are other forms. There's a progressive form.  

Some call it a continuous  infinitive. It uses the ending -ing.

Just know that TO BE + a present  participle expresses an unfinished  

action or an action in progress. Gina is lucky  to be driving at her age. She's a good driver.

Help me finish the rest of these sentences.

She's happy to be living independently.

She appears to be doing well for 93 and a half.  

I never expect her to be sleeping when I call.  She's usually awake and active or not home.

If you've watched my lesson on gerunds,  you'll know that we have passive and  

perfect gerunds. Well, guess what? We have  passive and perfect forms of infinitives.

It's wonderful to be blessed with good genes.  

Gina's mother, my great  aunt, also lived a long life.

The passive form of an infinitive  is TO BE + the past participle.

Form passive infinitives with me.

It's not unusual for Gina to be invited to play  somewhere in town. What more needs to be said?

It's true that Gina gets  invited to perform sometimes.  

Isn't that great? Quite a number of people  are lucky to have heard her play live.

They are lucky because at some point  in the past they heard her play live.

The perfect infinitive or past infinitive  uses TO HAVE + the past participle,  

and it refers to an earlier point  in time, earlier than the main verb.

Truthfully, we don't often use this perfect form,  

this past form, but I want you to be  able to recognize it and understand it.

Here's a final quiz to see what you remember and  

if you're familiar with other  rules concerning infinitives.

One. Which phrases have infinitives?

Two. Where's the negative infinitive?

Three. Where's the passive infinitive?

Four. Where's the perfect  infinitive, meaning the past form?

Five. Where's the infinitive of purpose?

Six. Which sentence sounds more natural?

Neither sentence is really wrong, but B  sounds more natural to my ears. You don't  

have to repeat TO when we create  a pair or a list of infinitives.

Seven. Which sentence is correct?

Both are correct. The verb "help" allows  us to use the infinitive or the base verb.  

The base verb is what some would call a "bare  infinitive" because it doesn't have "to."

Eight. Which sentence is correct?

I believe both are acceptable. We normally  don't split in infinitive in formal English  

and particularly in writing, but it's more  acceptable to do this in everyday English.  

Sentence A is what you'd likely hear in  spoken English. B is a bit more formal.

We'll end here. That's all for now, but I hope  to see you again soon. Please like and share  

the video if you found the lesson useful. As  always, thanks for watching and happy studies!

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