The infinitive sentence begins with “to” followed by a verb and can be used as a noun, adjective, or adverb. It is a non-finite verb form and is used in many languages. It can be combined with an article or have a suffix added to the verb. It retains most verb characteristics and can accept additional words.
In English grammar, the infinitive sentence is a fragment of a sentence that typically begins with the word “to”, immediately followed by a verb, and then any additional words to complete the verb. The sentence itself is not, however, a verb. It is most commonly used as a noun, but can also be used as a descriptive modifier for other words. Most of the other languages of the world employ this versatile linguistic technique. Many of them change the form of the verb slightly by adding a suffix to help clearly define it as an infinitive.
The infinitive sentence is often referred to as the dictionary form. In a dictionary, the definition of the word “whisper” could be “speak softly”. The first word of this sentence, not to be confused with the preposition “a” which denotes a relational direction, is called an article. “To speak” is normally a verb. In combination, “to speak” is the infinitive and the additional adverb “quietly” to describe how to complete the complete sentence.
Rarely, the infinitive term is also referred to as a non-finite verb form, of which there are three types in English. One, called a participle, as in “a whispering wind,” is always a descriptive adjective. Another type, called a gerund, is always a noun, like a library sign, “Talking is not permitted.” When a true infinitive is used as a noun, it is usually interchangeable with a gerund, as in “It is not permitted to speak.” A distinctive difference of the infinitive is that it can be used as a noun, adjective or adverb.
Some languages have infinitives that don’t normally combine with an article. It is said to be a naked infinity. While this is rare in English, it is the norm in most Romance, Germanic, and Slavic languages. By omitting the article, the form of the verb is instead changed by adding a suffix, such as -en in German and Dutch. As is more common in English, both languages sometimes employ an article to create a complete infinitive, also called the infinitive.
An example of the infinitive sentence used as a noun is: “It is a courtesy to speak quietly in a library.” The same phrase is used adverbially in “she covered her mouth to speak softly.” It is sometimes used as an adjective to describe nouns and pronouns, such as “Rather than argue, she is one who talks quietly.”
There is more to the versatility of the infinitive sentence and other non-finite verb sentences. Despite no longer being used as verbs, they retain most of their characteristics and can accept additional words that verbs normally would. “He quietly asked the librarian…to harshly give the loud, disruptive boy a lesson in manners.” The infinitive “to teach” in this example is complemented not only by an adverb, but also by direct and indirect objective nouns. Incidentally, this infinitive was “split” by its adverb, and there is some dispute as to whether this practice is stylistically appropriate English.
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