Infinitives,choose,Active/Passive voice,cases - Parts Of Speech-ESL/Learn English Grammar

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INFINITIVES.


266. Infinitives, like participles, have no tense. When active,
they have an indefinite, an imperfect, a perfect, and a perfect
definite form; and when passive, an indefinite and a perfect form, to
express action unconnected with a subject.


267. INFINITIVES OF THE VERB _CHOOSE._

                          ACTIVE VOICE.

_Indefinite._ [To] choose.
    _Imperfect._ [To] be choosing.
                _Perfect._ [To] have chosen.
                _Perfect definite._ [To] have been choosing.

                         PASSIVE VOICE.

_Indefinite._ [To] be chosen.   _Perfect._ [To] have been chosen.


[Sidenote: To _with the infinitive._]

268. In Sec. 267 the word _to_ is printed in brackets because it is
not a necessary part of the infinitive.

It originally belonged only to an inflected form of the infinitive,
expressing purpose; as in the Old English, "Ut eode se s?dere his sæd to sawenne" (Out went the sower his seed _to sow_).

[Sidenote: _Cases when_ to _is omitted._]

But later, when inflections became fewer, _to_ was used before the
infinitive generally, except in the following cases:--

(1) After the auxiliaries _shall_, _will_ (with _should_ and _would_).

(2) After the verbs _may (might), can (could), must_; also _let_,
_make_, _do_ (as, "I _do go_" etc.), _see_, _bid_ (command), _feel_, _hear_, _watch_, _please_; sometimes _need_ (as, "He _need_ not _go_") and _dare_ (to venture).

(3) After _had_ in the idiomatic use; as, "You _had_ better _go_" "He _had_ rather _walk_ than _ride_."

(4) In exclamations; as in the following examples:--

     "He _find_ pleasure in doing good!" cried Sir
     William.--GOLDSMITH.



     I _urge_ an address to his kinswoman! I _approach_ her when in a base disguise! I _do_ this!--SCOTT.

     "She _ask_ my pardon, poor woman!" cried Charles.--MACAULAY.


269. _Shall_ and _will_ are not to be taken as separate verbs, but
with the infinitive as one tense of a verb; as, "He _will choose_," "I
_shall have chosen_," etc.

Also _do_ may be considered an auxiliary in the interrogative,
negative, and emphatic forms of the present and past, also in the
imperative; as,--

     What! _doth_ she, too, as the credulous imagine, _learn_ [_doth
     learn_ is one verb, present tense] the love of the great stars?
     --BULWER.

     _Do_ not _entertain_ so weak an imagination--BURKE.

     She _did_ not _weep_--she _did_ not _break forth_ into
     reproaches.--IRVING.


270. The infinitive is sometimes active in form while it is passive
in meaning, as in the expression, "a house _to let_." Examples are,--

     She was a kind, liberal woman; rich rather more than needed where there were no opera boxes _to rent_.--DE QUINCEY.

     Tho' it seems my spurs are yet _to win_.--TENNYSON.

     But there was nothing _to do_.--HOWELLS.

     They shall have venison _to eat_, and corn _to hoe_.--COOPER.

     Nolan himself saw that something was _to pay_.--E.E. HALE.


271. The various offices which the infinitive and the participle
have in the sentence will be treated in Part II., under "Analysis," as
we are now learning merely to recognize the forms.


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