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Ku1980rose Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Infinitive

Consider this sentence:

John strives to finish his work.

Is "strives" transitive? "to finish" is an infinitive acting as a noun.
  

Top answer

Most dictionaries call it intransitive, but Collins says may take a clause or infinitive as object: to strive to get promotion . In modern grammar, if I’m not mistaken, to finish his work functions as complement (not object) to the catenative (not transitive) verb strive .

— RandomGuy

  • Most dictionaries call it intransitive, but Collins says may take a clause or infinitive as object: to strive to get promotion .
  • In modern grammar, if I’m not mistaken, to finish his work functions as complement (not object) to the catenative (not transitive) verb strive .
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5 Answers
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Most dictionaries call it intransitive, but Collins says may take a clause or infinitive as object: to strive to get promotion.

In modern grammar, if I’m not mistaken, to finish his work functions as complement (not object) to the catenative (not transitive) verb strive.
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Well I know some verbs can be both transitive and intransitive depending on how they are used.

However, in this sentence is "strives" the verb or "to finish"?
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ku1980rosein this sentence is "strives" the verb or "to finish"?
Both are verbs.
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Ok. So they both are types of verbs as they are used in this sentence. The question is if it is transitive then.
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Ignore that because you already answered it! :-)
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