An infinitive verb remains the same regardless of the subject, while finite verbs change depending on the subject. Infinitive verbs often appear with “to” and can be identified by testing them with different subjects. Language learners may have difficulty distinguishing between the two.
Simply put, an infinitive verb is one that doesn’t change based on the subject it corresponds with. For example, the verb “to play” is considered an infinitive verb. A person might say that he’s playing, he’s playing, I’m playing, or we were playing, and the verb remains the same. However, a verb like “play” does not stay the same and is not considered an infinitive verb. It changes according to the subject with which it is used: we play, they play, he plays and she plays.
In some languages, verb forms change depending on the subject the verb is related to. For example, a person might say something like, “I like fish.” It would not be correct, however, for him to say, “He likes fish.” This is due to the fact that the word “like” is a finite verb and the correct way to phrase this statement is to say “he likes fish”. An infinitive verb, on the other hand, is the opposite of a finite verb in that it does not change its form according to the subject it corresponds to. A person can say that he is loving, he is loving, we love and I love without changing the form of the verb.
Infinitive verbs often appear with the word “to”. For example, “build” is an infinitive verb. A person may say that he wants to build a house, he wants to build a house, he wants to build a house or we want to build a house. Conversely, the word build itself is not considered an infinitive verb. An individual may say I build, you build, or we build, but when she needs to use she or he as the subject, the verb form must change to she builds or he builds, so this particular verb is actually finite.
Even when a person doesn’t know right away whether a verb is finite or infinitive, they can usually find out which category it fits into simply by trying it out in speech or writing. For example, he may start with a word like “done” and use it with different subjects to determine whether it is finite or infinite. If he determines that he cannot use the word with various subjects without changing it, it is not an infinitive verb. However, this may only prove useful for people who are familiar with the language in question. Language learners may find it difficult to tell the difference, as they may not easily determine which usage is correct.
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