I have no money to buy it (with).

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I have no money to buy it (with).I have learned that to buy it (with) modifies money as an adjective and with can be omitted. I was wondering if we can say to infinitives just modify nouns without omitting prepositions like efforts to master English and way to study English, etc. Here are some sentences I would like to talk with you about.They have set Tuesday as the deadline to come up with a draft agreement.I feel like to come up....modifies the deadline as an adjective and then is there an omission of any prepositions like in or within, etc? Or can we just say to infinitives modify nouns behind as an adjective? What do you native English speakers think? Thank you so much as usual!

Deadrat · Accepted Answer

What is your understanding of the infinitive phrase? In other words, how do you form one in English and what role can it play in a sentence? Consider the following:

To come up with a draft agreement was the goal.
The goal was to come up with a draft agreement.
They met to come up with a draft agreement.
A vote to come up with a draft agreement was the goal.
They wanted to come up with a draft agreement.

To simplify things greatly, English builds its sentences with subjects, verbs, various objects and complements, and modifiers of these. Subjects and objects takes nouns, verbs need verbs, and modifiers are adjectives and adverbs.

I'll start. Sentence 1. The infinitive phrase is "To come up with a draft agreement." It's a thing that existed. (We know this because the "was" tells us so.) Thus the phrase must act as a noun, and it's the subject of the sentence.

Your turn. (Hint: "To come up with a draft agreement" is always the infinitive phrase.)

Hans51 · Answer

deadrat A vote to come up with a draft agreement was the goal.

Thank you so much! You are really helpful! And this one is similar to my sentence so I think that 'to come up with a draft agreement' modifies a vote behind as an adjective, right?

Deadrat · Answer

It seems I misunderstood the scope of your question and waxed too pedantic. Sorry.

Yes, sentence 4 "A vote to come up with a draft agreement ...." uses the infinitive phrase as an adjective telling us what kind of vote it is. And it trails the noun it modifies, unlike adjectives without verb constructs, which in English generally some before the noun. So if I wrote "the draft agreement vote," the kind of vote would be the same, but the modifying words come before the noun.

Allow me to modify my example: "A vote [to delay a contentious draft] was the goal." Same analysis. The adjectival infinitive in brackets trails the noun. Suppose we could put the infinitive first: "[To delay a contentious draft] vote was the goal." Unfortunately, because the infinitive phrase has its own verb-object grammatical structure, that will be understood as "[To delay a contentious draft vote"] was the goal. This means that the the goal was to delay a vote instead of delaying the draft.

My speculation is that the structure of the adjectival infinitive phrase condemns it to trial the noun it modifies.

What do you think of sentence 3?

Hans51 · Answer

Thank you so much and of course I think of it as an adverbial phrase in #3.

Deadrat · Answer

Right.  And it trails the verb it modifies.  But it doesn't have to, does it?  Why not?

I have no money to buy it (with).

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