0
Piano olive 758 Posted 7 years ago
Grammar

I have a question about infinitive

there is a sentence.

"one way to change things is to talk to the company's management."

above the sentence,

i think that the first underlined group of words is infinitive clauses.

and then, the second underlined group of words is infinitive phrases.

isn't it correct?

i found it on the internet.

but someone say that "to talk to the company's management" is infinitive clauses.

because subject is dropped.

this is called non-finite clause.

which one is correct?


please help me.

  

Top answer

[ One way to change things ] is to talk to the company's management . Both the underlined elements are infinitival clauses. Note that "one way" is not part of the infinitival clause, which is just "to change things", which modifies "way" in the bracketed noun phrase.

— BillJ

  • [ One way to change things ] is to talk to the company's management .
  • Both the underlined elements are infinitival clauses.
  • Note that "one way" is not part of the infinitival clause, which is just "to change things", which modifies "way" in the bracketed noun phrase.
  • Infinitival clauses (and gerund-participial / past participial) clauses are non-finite.
  • Note that most non-finite clauses have no overt subject, but we can usually recover a subject from elsewhere in the discourse, or from the context.
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

2 Answers
0

[One way to change things] is to talk to the company's management.

Both the underlined elements are infinitival clauses. Note that "one way" is not part of the infinitival clause, which is just "to change things", which modifies "way" in the bracketed noun phrase.

Infinitival clauses (and gerund-participial / past participial) clauses are n

0
0

You are mixing grammar systems, which is always unwise and leads to confusion.

Traditional grammar - any group of words which forms a lexical element and does not have an inflected verb is called a "phrase".

Modern grammar - any group of words which forms a lexical element and has a verb (finite or non-finite) is called a "clause". Phrases have a

0

Related Questions