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:
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.
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.
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
