What is infinitive clause

Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks. Updated March 29, Cite this Article Format. Nordquist, Richard. Infinitive Clauses. Definition and Examples of Subjunctive Mood in English. French Infinitive: 'L'infinitif'. Overview of the French Causative "le Causatif".

Definition and Examples of Infinitive Verbs. Understanding the 'to'-Infinitive in English Grammar. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for ThoughtCo. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

The infinitive often lacks to, especially in verb-phrases with the auxiliaries will, shall, may, can, must, might, could, would, should, do, did.

The infinitive has two tenses……the present and the perfect. The present infinitive is the verb in its simplest form, usually preceded by TO such as….. The perfect infinitive is made by prefixing the infinitive of the auxiliary verb HAVE to the past participle such as……to have lived, to have taught, to have bound, to have struck. An infinitive may be modified by an adverb - an adverbial phrase or an adverbial clause.

To write legibly is a valuable accomplishment. It would be useless to search longer. They allowed him to go in peace. To dive among those weeds would be folly. Theodore promises to come when I send for him. I beg you to inquire carefully into this matter. Harris moved to postpone the question indefinitely.

I expect always to be poor. But it is unquestionably still in accord with the best usage. The infinitive may take an object if its meaning allows. I long to visit Italy. My mother feared to enter the house. There may even be a clause in her contract by which she has to agree to certain content restrictions.

But an aspect that is particularly troubling is that such a clause exists at all. He added that lessening clause, remembering, quite simply, how much more brilliant he was than Nigel.

The Act contained another practical clause, designed to block the construction of lines from political considerations. An insurance policy may be assigned, though it usually contains a clause that the consent of the insurer is needful.