by Donna | Mar 17, 2011
Beside each of the phrases provided, write an I if each is an
infinitive; write PP if it is a prepositional phrase.
1. to go I
2. to sing I
3. to the government PP
4. to a boy PP
5. to walk I
6. to be I
7. to see I
8. to France PP
9. to John Adams PP
10. to crush I
11. to believe I
12. to his belief PP
13. to write I
14. to the sun PP
15. to confess I
by Donna | Mar 12, 2011
Beside each of the phrases provided, write an I if each is an infinitive; write PP if it is a prepositional phrase.
1. to go
2. to sing
3. to the government
4. to a boy
5. to walk
6. to be
7. to see
8. to France
9. to John Adams
10. to crush
11. to believe
12. to his belief
13. to write
14. to the sun
15. to confess
by Donna | Mar 11, 2011
Infinitives continued…
- They are easily confused with prepositional phrases containing the preposition to. If students learn early on when to is being used as part of an infinitive (when it is with any verb) and when it is used as a prepositional phrase (when it has an object following it), they will become better writers (for many reasons we will discuss later).
- Infinitive: He wanted to run.
- Prepositional phrases: They went to town.
3.
Infinitives are easy to recognize
because they always are to + verb.
Examples:
a. to think
b. to be
c. to show
3. To can also be a preposition (a word
that shows position). To know if the to is an infinitive or a preposition,
follow these rules:
a. Look at the word following the to.
b. If the word following to is a verb, you know
it is an infinitive. For
example: to know
c. If the word following the to is anything else
(noun, pronoun, adjective, etc.), it is a prepositional phrase. For
example: to the house
4. Any verb can be an infinitive. It just has
to have a to in front of it.
5. The to is part of the infinitive. For
example: in the case of to see, the complete verb is to see, not just see.
Tomorrow: Infinitive “pop” quiz…can you tell the difference between an infinitive and a preposition with to? J
by Donna | Mar 9, 2011
Earlier I said that we teach two main categories of verbs—action and Be a Helper, Link verbs (BHL verbs).
There is another “category” of verbs that you should learn, however. That is the group of verbs (also used as other parts of speech) known as the infinitive.
We teach infinitives as verbs (and early on) for a couple of reasons:
- While they might act like other parts of speech (i.e. modifying, being the sentence’s main subject, etc.) at times, more often than not, they act like verbs.
- They can describe what a subject is doing: The girl decided to write the letter.
- They can have BHL verbs with them: She had to take her medicine.
- They can have adverbs with them (when they are comprised of action verbs): She wanted to write beautifully.
- They can have direct objects with them (when they are comprised of action verbs): The girl wanted to eat chocolates.
- They can have predicate adjectives with them (when they are comprised of BHL verbs): She wanted to be careful.
They can have predicate nominatives with them (when they are comprised of BHL verbs): She wanted to be an actress.
Tomorrow—more on infinitives.
