by Jennie Ruby
There are certain grammar terms that we hear over and over-and we don’t know what they mean: "Dangling participle," "run-on sentence," "split infinitive." They are typically used in the context of an English teacher telling us what is wrong with our writing, which is probably why we blank out on them. The truth is, these terms are useful in trying to understand what is going on in our sentences, or "parsing" them. Today’s lesson, then, is what is an infinitive?
We love verbs in English. Verbs are arguably the most important words we have. A verb alone can be used to create a sentence, like this one: "Run!" This is a complete sentence because the subject is the understood "you," the person the speaker is talking to. Verbs are so important in English that not only do we use one in every sentence, we also use verbs as other parts of speech. We use them as nouns, as adjectives, and as adverbs. One of the ways we do this is to use the infinitive form of the verb.
The infinitive form looks like this: to verb, where verb is any verb. Here are some examples of infinitives: to run, to eat, to see, to be.
When you see an infinitive in a sentence, one thing you know for sure is that it is not the actual verb of the sentence. Here are some examples of infinitives being used as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs:
- To write clearly is one of a journalist’s main goals. (noun-the subject of the sentence)
- To play well, you must practice. (adverb, explaining why you must practice)
- The best place to eat is Jimmy’s Café. (adjective, identifying what best place)
For all practical purposes, the main thing to know about an infinitive is that it is not acting as a verb, and does not have a subject. The second thing to know is that infinitives can be split, but that some old-school teachers and readers do not believe it is correct to split them. Here are some split infinitives:
- To boldly go where noone has gone before
- To totally rearrange the furniture
- To completely rewrite the sentence
In each case, the to part of the infinitive is separated from the verb part by an adverb. Your assignment this week: notice the infinitives in sentences you read and sentences you write. You may be surprised how common this obscurely named part of speech actually is.
About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Essentials of Access 2000" and "Editing with MS Word 2003 and Adobe Acrobat 7" to her credit. Jennie specializes in electronic editing. At the American Psychological Association, she was manager of electronic publishing and manager of technical editing and journal production. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer (Chauncey Group). She is a publishing professional with 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.
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