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Arun2204 Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Behavior of Infinitive phrases
How to identify if an infinitive phrase is behaving as a noun phrase or an adverbial phrase.
Example: Albert attempted to climb the tallest mountain in the world.
Now the infinitive phrase "the tallest mountain in the world" is a noun phrase acting as an object in the sentence or an adverbial phrase supporting the verb attempted ?
Example: Albert attempted to climb the tallest mountain in the world.
Now the infinitive phrase "the tallest mountain in the world" is a noun phrase acting as an object in the sentence or an adverbial phrase supporting the verb attempted ?
Top answer
"The tallest mountain in the world" is the object of the infinitive "to climb". "To climb the tallest mountain in the world" is an infinitive phrase acting as a noun as the object of "attempted".
- "The tallest mountain in the world" is the object of the infinitive "to climb".
- "To climb the tallest mountain in the world" is an infinitive phrase acting as a noun as the object of "attempted".
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3 Answers
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"The tallest mountain in the world" is the object of the infinitive "to climb". "To climb the tallest mountain in the world" is an infinitive phrase acting as a noun as the object of "attempted".
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Thanks enoon. Can you please explain why I shouldn't consider the phrase as an adverb ? One can argue that the phrase explains "what did he attempt" there by adding quality to the verb attempted.
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It's not an adverb because it is the object of the verb. It does answer the question "what did he attempt?" That's what the object does.
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