Exercise 2

Write the six participle forms of the verbs see and teach, and use in sentences of your own construction.

INFINITIVES

151. We have found that the various forms of the participles may be used as other parts of speech. They partake of the nature of a verb and either of a noun or an adjective. Notice the following sentences:

Traveling is pleasant.
Eating is necessary.

Can you think of any other way in which you could express the same thought? Do you not sometimes say,

To travel is pleasant.
To eat is necessary.

We have expressed practically the same thought in these two sentences, which is expressed in the sentences above, where we used the participle. To travel and to eat are used as nouns, subjects of the verb is just as traveling and eating are used as nouns, the subjects of the verb is.

Here we have another form of the verb used as a noun. When we use the verb in this way, we are not speaking of the traveling or eating as belonging to or being done by any particular person, nor do we indicate whether one person or more than one is concerned in the action. It might be anyone doing the traveling or eating, and it might be one person or a thousand. We are making a general statement of everybody in the world, so we call this form the infinitive.

152. Infinite means unlimited, without limit as to persons or number. Almost every verb in the language may be used in this way, and since to is generally used before the infinitive, to is often called the sign of the infinitive. For example:

To be, or not to be, that is the question.
To have and to hold is the problem.
He likes to travel.

You note in all of these infinitives to is used with the simple form of the verb.

153. To is generally omitted after verbs like help, hear, bid, feel, let, make, see and have, or words of similar meaning. For example:

Help me (to) find it.
He bade me (to) stay.
Feel it (to) shake.
Make him (to) come.
Hear me (to) sing.
Let us (to) go.
See him (to) run.
Have him (to) copy this.

154. To is also omitted after need and dare when not is used.

They need to work.	They need not work.
They dared to come.	They dared not come.

155. To is sometimes omitted after prepositions:

He will do anything for his class, except (to) fight for it.
He would do nothing but (to) go away.

156. We have a number of different forms of the infinitive, both active and passive. Note the following table:

Active		Passive
Present.	To love.	Present.	To be loved.
Perfect.	To have loved.	Perfect.	To have been loved.
Present Prog.	To be loving.
Perfect Prog.	To have been loving.

157. Notice that only the present and perfect infinitives have the passive form. The progressive infinitives cannot be used in the passive. Remember also that only incomplete verbs, those which require an object to receive the action, can have a passive form.

The verb loved, which we have used in the above table, has a passive form because it is an incomplete verb, for there must be that which is the object of our love.

158. The complete verbs,—verbs which require no object,—cannot have a passive form for there is no object to become the receiver of the action. Take for example the verb dwell. This is a complete verb which can have no passive form. You cannot dwell anything, therefore you cannot say to be dwelt or to have been dwelt.

So complete verbs have only the four active forms, as follows:

Active
Present.	To dwell.	Present Prog.	To be dwelling.
Perfect.	To have dwelt.	Perfect Prog.	To have been dwelling.

159. Infinitives, like participles, may be used either as nouns or adjectives. When used as nouns, they are used in the various ways in which nouns are used. The infinitive may be the subject of a sentence, thus:

To hesitate now will be fatal.
To be defeated is no crime.

160. The infinitive may be the object or complement of the verb. For example:

He wanted to see you.
His desire is to learn.

161. The infinitive may be used as the object of a preposition; as,

He is about to go.
They will do anything for the cause except to live for it.

162. The infinitive may be used as an adjective to modify a noun. For example:

He showed me the way to go.
We must have food to eat and clothes to wear.
The question to be decided is before us.
Claim your right to live.

163. The infinitive may also be used as an adverb to modify the meaning of a verb, adjective or adverb, thus:

He was forced to go.
They are slow to learn.
The fruit was not ripe enough to eat.

Note that the infinitives in these sentences may all be changed into adverb phrases. As for example in the first sentence, He was forced to go, the infinitive to go, which modifies the verb forced, may be changed to the adverb phrase, into going, thus, He was forced into going. In the second sentence, They are slow to learn, the infinitive to learn may be changed into the adverb phrase in learning, thus, They are slow in learning. In the last sentence, The fruit is not ripe enough to eat, the infinitive to eat, which modifies the adverb enough, may be changed into the adverb phrase, for eating, as for example, The fruit was not ripe enough for eating.

164. The infinitive is quite a useful form of the verb, and we will find that we use it very frequently in expressing our ideas. While it is not the asserting word in the sentence, it retains the nature of a verb and may have both an object and an adverb modifier. As for example, in the sentence:

I wish to learn my lesson quickly.

To learn is the infinitive, used as a noun, the object of the verb wish. The infinitive also has an object, to learn—what? My lesson is the object of the infinitive to learn. We also have an adverb modifier in the adverb quickly, which tells how I wish to learn my lesson. So the infinitive retains its verb nature, in that it may have an object and it may be modified by an adverb.

Exercise 3

Notice carefully the use of the infinitives in the following sentences. Underscore all infinitives.

To remain ignorant is to remain a slave.
Teach us to think and give us courage to act.
Children love to be praised, but hate to be censured.
To obey is the creed taught the working class by the masters.
To be exploited has always been the fate of the workers.
Ferrer wrote on his prison wall, "To love a woman passionately, to have an ideal which I can serve, to have the desire to fight until I win—what more can I wish or ask?"
The people wish the man to be punished for the crime.
Primitive man found plenty of wood to burn.
We have learned to use coal and oil.
The lecture to have been given this evening has been postponed.
They are eager to hear the news.
He has failed to come.
We felt the house shake on its foundation.
Have him find the book for me.
To be defeated is no crime; never to have dared is the real crime.
The rich will do anything for the poor except to get off their backs.
To have slept while others fought is your shame.
Claim your right to do, to dream and to dare.

Exercise 4

Write sentences containing the six infinitive forms of the verb obey.