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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Infinitive verb tenses

All my years of studying and teaching English sometimes do little for me in trying to explain to ESL students what verb tense they are dealing with. So far I've tagged 45 verb tenses and I just found one that has me stumped. So I hope someone out there can help me out.
On the infinitive verbs there is the
  • simple I like to win.
  • perfect We wanted to have gone.
  • progressive I prefer doing something to doing nothing
  • present passive They expected to be chosen
  • perfect passive I would like to have been chosen.
  • perfect progressive They thought that by 10 o'clock they would have been completing it.
So what is the verb tenses for this??

I was happy to be completing it.

I would appreciate help to complete the list. Thanks.
  

Top answer

I prefer doing something to doing nothing - This is not progressive. 'Doing' here is a gerund. Here is progressive: 'I'm doing something now'.

— Mister Micawber

  • I prefer doing something to doing nothing - This is not progressive.
  • 'Doing' here is a gerund.
  • Here is progressive: 'I'm doing something now'.
  • I was happy to be completing it.
  • -- This is a progressive infinitive form.
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3 Answers
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I prefer doing something to doing nothing- This is not progressive. 'Doing' here is a gerund. Here is progressive: 'I'm doing something now'.
I was happy to be completing it.-- This is a progressive infinitive form.
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It is a passive infinitive.

In your first set of examples a verb always preceded the infinitive clause whereas in the last example an adjective preceded it which makes your sentence a passive infinite.
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I don't think that is right. There is no past participle for it to be passive voice.

Passive voice=verb to be + past participle

to be destroyed=passive infinitive
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