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infinitive
(redirected from Infinitive verb)

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infinitive

In grammar, the basic form of a verb, the form by which verbs are identified: ‘to be’, ‘to hit’, ‘to love’, and so on. The infinitive form of the verb in English is always preceded by to.

The infinitive can be either the subject of a sentence (‘To win is my aim’) or the object (‘I want to win’). But the main verb of the sentence must be finite. The practice of splitting an infinitive (‘to boldly go’) is frowned on by many people, but there are occasions when it may be the best solution (‘a chance to really relax’; ‘the purpose of the training is to better equip those who failed’).



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? Mentioned in ? References in periodicals archive
 
In (20b), for instance, the butler is part of the semantic valency of the infinitive verb, but it is also the "object" of the main verb, as indicated e.
Let and the "bare infinitive": an exploratory exercise in traditional ... by Anderson, John M. / Studia Anglica Posnaniensia: international review of English Studies
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