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Norwolf Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

(to) infinitive

I learnt that have known can be followed by an object + bare infinitive or to infinitive, for example, I've never known her (to) be late before.
My question is: what about knew?
Kindly give me a hand.
Thank you in advance.
  

Top answer

I' ve never known her (to) be late before is a perfect tense construction. The perfect requires a past participle verb-form, like known in your example. But "knew" is not a past participle; it's the simple past tense form of "know", so you can't substitute it: there's no * I' ve never knew her to be late before .

— BillJ

  • I' ve never known her (to) be late before is a perfect tense construction.
  • The perfect requires a past participle verb-form, like known in your example.
  • But "knew" is not a past participle; it's the simple past tense form of "know", so you can't substitute it: there's no * I' ve never knew her to be late before .
  • Is that what you meant by "what about knew"?
  • BillJ
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5 Answers
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I've never known her (to) be late before is a perfect tense construction. The perfect requires a past participle verb-form, like known in your example. But "knew" is not a past participle; it's the simple past tense form of "know", so you can't substitute it: there's no *I've never knew her to be late before.

Is that what you
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Well, I am sorry not to make myself understood clearly.
I mean this:
Can we say "I never knew her be late before"?
That is, in the context, is it correct that the perfect tense is replaced by the simple past tense when the verb know is followed by an object and a bare infinitive?
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norwolfI learnt that have known can be followed by an object + bare infinitive or to infinitive, for example, I've never known her (to) be late before.My question is: what about knew?
That pattern works in all tenses.

CJ
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Dear Jim: I learnt this from Longman English Grammar by L G Alexander:
Know + infinitive normally requires a noun or pronoun object. The omission of to is only possible with the perfect form of know: I've never known her (to) be late before.

Was he too conservative?
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My apologies. I read your posts too fast, and I didn't realize that the omission of "to" was the object of your inquiry.

I meant that the pattern is good in all tenses with the "to". In fact, I use the "to" even in the perfect tenses. I'm guessing that this is American usage, because the omission of "to" sounds British to my ear.

CJ
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