The rising sun awakened me.

The fallen tree lay across the ravine.

The wind, howling a gale, swept the sea.

Twisting out of my hands, he escaped in the darkness.

The tree, twisted and broken, rotted away.

Infinitives

The infinitive is usually preceded by its sign, to, but after some verbs (do, shall, will, may, can, dare, help, need, see, hear, feel, let, make, bid) and after the expressions had better, had rather, it is usually the pure or root infinitive without to.

There are six forms of the infinitive:

SimpleProgressivePassive
Pres.to taketo be takingto be taken
Perf.to have takento have been takingto have been taken

The infinitive has various uses: