INFINITIV

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INFINITIVE
-consists of the words ‘to + verb’.
-It names an action and is used mostly as
a complement of a verb.
Example:
Bob loves to sing.
REMEMBER:
An infinitive is formed by
placing ‘to’ before the base verb.

to + base verb = infinitive

An infinitive is a non-finite verb.
It is not limited by tense, number, or person
So, the infinitive remains unchanged.
TENSE EXAMPLE

Simple Tense Bob loves to sing.

Past Tense We loved to sing duet.
Future Tense She will love to sing at
the banquet.
 Different methods to identify
infinitives.
Infinitives usually appears after the main verb in the sentence.
Example:
They waited to meet the director of the play.
Infinitives are used after certain verbs like forget, learn, hope, need, want,
agree, encourage, pretend, decide, refuse etc.
Examples:
Mary refuse to leave.
Why do you pretend to like me?
The infinitive form also appears after adjectives like happy,
pleased, sad, disappointed, etc.
Examples:
I was sad to hear the news.
They are surprised to see you.

Infinitives appear after ‘too + adjective’ in a sentence.

Examples:
It is too hot to go outside.
It is too late to turn back now.
They also appear after ‘adjective enough’ in a sentence.
Examples:
Ravi is old enough to make his own decisions.
You are smart enough to know that is wrong.

Sometimes infinitives can appear at the start of the

sentence where they are used as a subject.
Example:
To wait for him is like for eternity.
An infinitive does not always appear with the ‘to’ before the base verb.
Example:
The coach made us run on the field.

An infinitive can be used to join sentences.

Example:
Every team has a captain. He leads the players.

An infinitive is also used to substitute for ‘so that’

Example:
She went to the shop so that she could help them.
 MAIN POINTS:
 An infinitive consists of the words ‘to + verb’. It names an
action of the verb and is used mostly as a complement of a verb.
It is formed by placing ‘to’ before the base verb.
 It is non-finite verb. It is not limited by tense, number or
person.
 In some cases, the infinitive can be used without the word ‘to’.
 ORDER OF
ADJECTIVES
In English, we sometimes use more than one
adjective to describe a noun. We cannot just
put them wherever we want.

We need to remember that there is a proper

way of putting them in order.
Here is an acronym for you to remember the correct adjective order.
N-O-S-A-S-C-O-M-P
Number
Opinion
Size
Age
Shape
Color
Origin
Material
Purpose
Number describes the number of nouns One, two, three. Four

Opinion Describes your judgement or what you Horrible, ugly, beautiful, fantastic
think about something
Size Describes how big or small something Huge, tiny, long, tall
is
Age Describes how old or young Old, new, young, ancient. antique
something is
Shape Describes the shape of something Circular, square, triangular

Color Describes the color of something Black, red, pinkish, blue

Origin Describes what the noun is from Chinese, Italian, American, African

Material Describes what the noun is made of Wooden, leather, plastic, metallic

Purpose Describes where the noun is used for Fishing, cooking, sleeping, sports
NUMBE OPINION SIZE AGE SHAPE COLOR ORIGIN MATERIA PURPOS NOUN
L E
R

three beautiful short old Asian women

two new red cotton night dresses

five ugly big circular black moles

TIPS:
Usually, we don’t use more than three adjectives in a
sentence. The examples given are just used to show how
adjectives are properly put in order.
 We sometimes disarrange the adjectives when we want to
emphasize something.
Example:
She has a big hideous scar.
 For you not to get confused, don’t forget the acronym
NOSASCOMP.