Exercise 3

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

  1. To remain ignorant is to remain a slave.
  2. Teach us to think and give us courage to act.
  3. Children love to be praised, but hate to be censured.
  4. To obey is the creed taught the working class by the masters.
  5. To be exploited has always been the fate of the workers.
  6. 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?"
  7. The people wish the man to be punished for the crime.
  8. Primitive man found plenty of wood to burn.
  9. We have learned to use coal and oil.
  10. The lecture to have been given this evening has been postponed.
  11. They are eager to hear the news.
  12. He has failed to come.
  13. We felt the house shake on its foundation.
  14. Have him find the book for me.
  15. To be defeated is no crime; never to have dared is the real crime.
  16. The rich will do anything for the poor except to get off their backs.
  17. To have slept while others fought is your shame.
  18. Claim your right to do, to dream and to dare.

Exercise 4

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

DON'TS FOR INFINITIVES

165. Don't split your infinitives. Keep the to and the infinitive together as much as possible. Don't say, They intended to never come back. Say rather, They intended never to come back. Sometimes, however, the meaning can be more aptly expressed by placing the adverb modifier between the to and the infinitive, as for example:

In these sentences the adverbs almost and far express our meaning more closely if they are placed between the to and the infinitive. Ordinarily, however, do not split your infinitives, but place the adverb modifier either before or after the infinitive.

166. Don't use to by itself without the rest of the infinitive. Don't say, Do as I tell you to. Say instead, Do as I tell you to do; or, Do as I tell you. Don't say, He deceived us once and he is likely to again. Say rather, He deceived us once and he is likely to deceive us again, or to do so again.