Infinitives

Objectives of today’s lesson:

In this lesson, Learn English with Julia presents to you “Infinitives”, in order for you to:

  • understand what an infinitive is
  • practise through infinitive examples
  • differentiate infinitive and gerund
  • complete infinitives exercises

 

Video Script:

hi let’s look at infinitives

infinitives are also known as the basic

form of a verb

to play, to learn, to run

are all infinitives but we can also find

a bare form called bare infinitive

where we simply remove the “to” so that there is

only one component left

play, learn, run: are also infinitives or bare infinitives

now these are not infinitives
because they have inflections

here this S here binds this verb to the 3rd person
singular of the simple present

it’s not an infinitive or a bare infinitive

it is part of the verb tense

this is the simple present or present simple

this is not an infinitive

it has an inflection -ED at the end

that indicates that we are dealing with either the past participle or a simple past

here the infinitive would be: “run” or “to run”

So once again this is not an infinitive.

A few hints for you here, useful in the classroom.

Now when a student learns a
verb, encourage him/her to learn it in the infinitive form

either full infinitive or bare infinitive

When they learn irregular verbs also encourage them to
start with the infinitive

for instance: to buy, bought, bought,

And finally you will notice that sometimes we use infinitives as nouns in a sentence.

For example: he likes to learn

There it’s no longer used as a verb, it’s used as a noun.

 

Grammar Quiz:

 

Keywords listed in English:

  • infinitive
  • infinitive with “to”
  • bare infinitive or infinitive without “to”
  • basic form
  • bare form


Back to the Course Index

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *