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The17pointscale Posted 20 years ago
Grammar
the evil bare infinitive
arrrrgh. i'm confused! bear with me, there's a question here somewhere; i'm just not sure what i want to ask....
i managed to wade my way through participles and gerunds but seem to be at an impasse with infinitives. as i understand it, infinitive phrases function as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. that is, they are verb-like creatures that don't function as verbs (aka verbals). or so i thought until i read a passing comment about bare infinitives.
as far as i can tell, the bare infinitive is the base form of a verb without a 'to'--just like you'd find in the dictionary. furthermore, the grammar bible, the chicago manual of style, and fowler's modern english usage appear to offer the following criteria for using the bare infinitive:
1. use it in an 'active voice' sentence
2a. use it with 'semi-modal' verbs like bid, dare, feel, hear, help, let, make, need, see, and watch.
e.g. (from the grammar bible): They bade us depart with all due haste; I felt her heart beat; We heard teh birds whistle a merry tune; Why not let him cook dinner? The guards made the crowd disperse peacefully; I saw you hide in the bushes; The detective watched him cross the street
2c. use it after idiomatic expressions like had better
e.g. (from Fowler's): I had better wait.
2a. (here's where i'm confused) use it with auxilary verbs like can, may, shall, should, will, would, and must.
e.g. She might spot the Loch Ness monster. I shall fly with Betty.
Soooo...aren't "spot" and "fly" functioning as main verbs here? Is the to-less infinitive not a verbal? I'm sorry, I don't really know what to ask...I'm just confused....
-andrew
i managed to wade my way through participles and gerunds but seem to be at an impasse with infinitives. as i understand it, infinitive phrases function as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. that is, they are verb-like creatures that don't function as verbs (aka verbals). or so i thought until i read a passing comment about bare infinitives.
as far as i can tell, the bare infinitive is the base form of a verb without a 'to'--just like you'd find in the dictionary. furthermore, the grammar bible, the chicago manual of style, and fowler's modern english usage appear to offer the following criteria for using the bare infinitive:
1. use it in an 'active voice' sentence
2a. use it with 'semi-modal' verbs like bid, dare, feel, hear, help, let, make, need, see, and watch.
e.g. (from the grammar bible): They bade us depart with all due haste; I felt her heart beat; We heard teh birds whistle a merry tune; Why not let him cook dinner? The guards made the crowd disperse peacefully; I saw you hide in the bushes; The detective watched him cross the street
2c. use it after idiomatic expressions like had better
e.g. (from Fowler's): I had better wait.
2a. (here's where i'm confused) use it with auxilary verbs like can, may, shall, should, will, would, and must.
e.g. She might spot the Loch Ness monster. I shall fly with Betty.
Soooo...aren't "spot" and "fly" functioning as main verbs here? Is the to-less infinitive not a verbal? I'm sorry, I don't really know what to ask...I'm just confused....
-andrew
Top answer
They are the main verbs but are not finite verbs: that is, they do not change with person, number, tense, etc: I shall fly; she will fly I might fly, she might fly . Confusingly, neither do the modals change; but otherwise, the formation is no different than with more normal verbs: I let fly, she lets fly I dare fly, she dares fly, they dared fly I help fly, she helps fly, they would have helped fly .
- They are the main verbs but are not finite verbs: that is, they do not change with person, number, tense, etc: I shall fly; she will fly I might fly, she might fly .
- Confusingly, neither do the modals change; but otherwise, the formation is no different than with more normal verbs: I let fly, she lets fly I dare fly, she dares fly, they dared fly I help fly, she helps fly, they would have helped fly .
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1 Answers
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They are the main verbs but are not finite verbs: that is, they do not change with person, number, tense, etc:
I shall fly; she will fly
I might fly, she might fly.
Confusingly, neither do the modals change; but otherwise, the formation is no different than with more normal verbs:
I let fly, she lets fly
I dare fly, she dares fly, they dared fly
I shall fly; she will fly
I might fly, she might fly.
Confusingly, neither do the modals change; but otherwise, the formation is no different than with more normal verbs:
I let fly, she lets fly
I dare fly, she dares fly, they dared fly
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