THE INFINITIVE

Present Active Passive

to write to be written

Present Continuous to be writing -

Perfect to have written to have been written

Perfect Continuous to have been writing -

Present:

I am glad to see you.

I was glad to see you.

Ill be glad to see you.

Present Continuous:

He turned out to be sleeping.

Perfect:

I am glad to have met him.

I was glad to have met him.

Perfect Continuous:

He turned out to have been waiting for us for a long time.

Use:

As a subject:

To learn languages is difficult.

After some adjectives:

a. (bad, difficult, easy, good, hard, possible, impossible, necessary, useless, nice)

It is hard to understand him. (He is hard to understand.)

b.(clever, good, kind, wise, silly, stupid, selfish)

It was wise of her not to go there.

After some verbs:

(afford, agree, aim, appear, arrange, begin, bother, care, claim, decide, demand, determine, expect, fail, happen, hesitate, forget, hope, hate, intend, learn, like, love, manage, offer, mean, need, prepare, pretend, promise, refuse, remember, regret, propose, prove, start, tend, seem, swear, threaten, try, trouble, turn out, want, wish)

I happened to be in the shop when he came in.

The prisoner managed to escape.

He seems to have lost something.

The police hope to solve the crime soon.

He claims to have seen me yesterday.

Accusative + Infinitive

(advise, allow, appoint, ask, beg, challenge, dare, command, direct, enable, encourage, expect, force, help, implore, inspire, instruct, invite, lead, order, persuade, remind, request, stimulate, teach, tell, trust, want, warn)

Why do you want me to be here?

He asked her not to cry.

Id like you to help me.

! Accusative + short Infinitive

a.       let, make, have

Let me help you.

Dont make me laugh!

Why dont you have the tap mended?

b.      verbs of perception (hear, see, notice)

I see the clouds gather.

!!-but to Infinitive in Passive Voice

He was seen to go into the building.

We were made to work hard.

Nominative + Infinitive

a.       after intransitive verbs (seem, appear, prove, happen, turn out)

He seemed to be pleased with the results.

b.      after verbs of perception

He was seen to go into the building.

c.       (say, tell, believe, think)

He is said to be clever.

He is believed to have been promoted.

Too, Enough

It is too difficult for me to understand.

Im not rich enough to buy a house.

This glass is too dirty to drink from.

It is not clean enough to drink from.

The first/ the second/ the last/ the only + to Infinitive

He loves parties, he is the first to come and the last to leave.

For + to Infinitive

They arranged for her to come.