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Cocoon Posted 19 years ago
Linguistics Studies

the infinitive and the past infinitive

0could i ask you what do you think are the rules for the use of either the infinitive or the past infinitive.02br
02br
00eg. 01i00She was told not to dirty her dress.02i02br
02br
00but 01i00She was heard not to have told him the truth02i00.02br
02br
00is the latter in the past inf. because she 01i00did not tell him the truth02i00 in the past (or simply because of the time sequence?)02br
02br
00and in the first case, 01i00not to dirty her dress02i00 is a 01b00supertemporal02b00 statement with its timeless validity?02br
02br
00i am not able to find any comprehensive rules anywhere.02br
02br
00thank you for your help.0-
  

Top answer

0She was told not to dirty her dress. 02br 02br 01i 00She was heard not to have told him the truth02i 00. Here there is a past action done by her: 01i 00not telling him the truth02i 00 and this situation is stated in the above sentence as past infinitive.

— Doll

  • 0She was told not to dirty her dress.
  • 02br 02br 01i 00She was heard not to have told him the truth02i 00.
  • Here there is a past action done by her: 01i 00not telling him the truth02i 00 and this situation is stated in the above sentence as past infinitive.
  • Action was done)010id2
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20 Answers
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0She was told not to dirty her dress. Let's think that her mother tells her"Julia, don't dirty your dress."(By the way dirty dress is strange a bit 05000)So, here it is indirect speech.She just was warned i any action didn't happen.02br
02br
01i00She was heard not to have told him the truth02i00. Someone heard her when she told lie to him.Here there
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0Hi,02br
02br
01font00could i ask you what do you think are the rules for the use of either the infinitive or the past infinitive.02font02br
02br
01font00eg. 01i00She was told not to dirty her dress.02i02font02br
02br
01font
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0
0 Hi Cocoon02br
02br
00The 01font00present infinitive02font00 usually refers to the present time or to the future:02br
01i00He is known 01font00to be02font00 rich.02br
00They are known 01font00to like02font00 cho
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0 Thank you Clive and Cool Breeze till now I have been thaught that there is a past infinitive!!!!!!!! 0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Cool Breeze12cite10Hi Cocoon12br
12br
10The 11font10present infinitive12font10 usually refers to the present time or to the future:12br
11i10He is known 11font10to be12font10 rich.12br
10The
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0it is clear to me that 01i00Mary likes to cook/to have cooked dinner02i00 differ02br
02br
00but my main interest is what are the rules if 01u00the first part of the sentence is in the past02u02br
02br
00e.g. Mary liked to have cooked dinner/ to cook dinner.02br
02br
00or the examples i gave.0
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0She was happy to be accepted here(In the past she felt very happy that they would accept her.Be careful!She still wasn't accepted.Action wasn't done) - are you sure the action wasn´t completed?0-
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0 I really don't know whether I am sure or not.I wrote this examples to you from the workshit I was given by my TEACHER two years ago and I wrote you what is written there.But I see now even there isn't something as past infinitive:( 0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Cocoon12cite11i10yes,this is clear, but I mean if the first part is in the past. is perf. inf obligatory? 12br
12i12br
12br
11i10He will 11font10have read12font10 that book by tomorrow afternoon.12i12br
12br
11
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0Hi,02br
02br
00Here are a couple of examples set in the past.02br
02br
01font00She wanted 01b00to arrive02b00 at her sister's house at 5 pm.02font00 She wanted to knock on her sister's door at 5pm.02br
02br
01font00She wanted 01b00to ha
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