infinitive

«infinitive» in Mova's school dictionary: The basic form of a verb, often with to in front: to run… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

noun (an infinitive, infinitives); adjective (infinitive)

meaning for a pupil

(grammar) The basic form of a verb, often with to in front: to run, to be, to eat; the bare infinitive has no to: run, be, eat. tree →

sense in the lessons

In grammar lessons in English and French (manger, aller); dictionaries list verbs by the infinitive. Phrases: to-infinitive, split infinitive, bare infinitive.

examples

• To swim is an infinitive. tree →
• I want to go home: to go is an infinitive. tree →
• In French, aller is the infinitive meaning to go. tree →
• A split infinitive puts a word between to and the verb: to boldly go. tree →
• Can and must are followed by the bare infinitive: I can swim. tree →
• Look up a verb in the dictionary by its infinitive. tree →

note

Plural infinitives. Split infinitives are now accepted by most writers; old rules said avoid them. Say in-FIN-i-tiv.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «infinitive» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.