The Ins and Outs of Infinitives: A Guide to Using Them Correctly

I assume you are familiar with verbs that are preceded by "to" such as to go, to walk, to eat, to fly, to swim, to see, to run, and more. In this article, I will cover them completely.

For example:

• To go to buy clothes is a must for all women.

• He intended to walk to school every day.

• Whenever he arrived at a new place in his travels, he always found a new menu to eat.

• The pilot aimed to fly the plane soon.

All the verbs preceded by "to" are called "infinitives." Infinitives are not verbs, so they cannot use the suffixes "s," "es," "ed," or "ing." Instead, they work as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs in a sentence.

For instance, "to go" in example number 1 works as a noun and as the subject of the sentence, while "to walk" in example number 2 works as a noun and as the object of the sentence. "To eat" in example number 3 works as an adjective that modifies the noun "menu," and "to fly" in example number 4 works as an adverb that modifies the verb "aimed."

According to strict grammatical rules, infinitives cannot be split with adverbs. For instance:

• Incorrect: He was happy to surprisingly welcome his new friend who came from France.

• Correct: He was happy to welcome his new friend who came from France surprisingly.

• Incorrect: Chari is trying to quickly climb to that hill this morning.

• Correct: Chari is trying to climb to that hill quickly this morning.

There are more examples of infinitives such as to walk, to purchase, to achieve, to grind, to cater, to destroy, to savor, to delight, to read, to run, to jump, to play, to sing, to laugh, to cry, to eat, to go, and so on.

Although infinitives cannot be split, sometimes splitting infinitives are still used in literature. For example, "to boldly dive into the deepest heart of that beautiful woman, the King pretends to be a crazy man."

So, in conclusion, infinitives are verbs preceded by "to" and work as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. Infinitives cannot be split except for literary devices.

Congratulations, you now know what infinitives are. Thank you very much for always visiting my blog. Have a wonderful day!

Best regards,

Santosa Laksana.

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