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Infinitive

When the word to is followed by a verb, it is an infinitive; for example, to walk , to look , to talk . Thus, to walk is the infinitive form of the verb walk . The word to is not used as a preposition. Infinitive makes use of the base form of a verb to follow to , without a change in its form to express a function such as a tense, mood, person, number, case and gender. Without to , the verb form is called the bare infinitive, and sometimes, the form that follows to is called the to-infinitive or the full infinitive (to + simple form/base form of the verb).  

Verbs used with to-infinitives. There are many verbs that can be used with to-infinitives such as the following:

afford, agree, appear, arrange, ask, attempt, beg, begin, care, choose, consent, continue, dare, decide, expect, fail, forget, happen, hate, help, hope, intend, learn, like, love, manage, mean, neglect, offer, prefer, prepare, pretend, promise, propose, refuse, regret, seem, speak, start, trouble, try, wake, walk, want, wish .  

Examples of infinitives     Examples of infinitives using the following words: ask , beg , expect , hate , help , intend , like , and mean .

Examples:

  • She� asked � to see  my pet spider.
  • He� begged  her  to go  with him.
  • We didn't� expect   to meet  you here in the washroom.
  • I� hate � to say  this, but you talk too much.
  • I� helped � to catch  the thief.
  • The tourists don't� intend � to stay  long at the desert.
  • Dad� likes � to eat  two hard-boiled eggs in the morning.
  • He didn't� mean � to offend  everyone of you. �

Its

Its is different from it’s . When an apostrophe is not used with the word� its , it indicates possession or determiner. When an apostrophe is used, it’s is a contraction of� it is . Its is used to indicate it is or it has . Inserting an apostrophe so that it becomes� it's  when you mean possession makes the sentence wrong grammatically. Without apostrophe Without an apostrophe, the word  its  indicates belonging to a noun that has already been mentioned.

Without apostrophe

Examples:

  • My dog is always licking  its  paw.

    (The use of� its  indicates the paw belongs to the dog.)

  • It flapped� its  wings and flew away.
  • Their house has� its  own swimming pool.

With apostrophe

With an apostrophe, the word it’s is a contraction of it is .

Examples:

  • Wrong :� Its  your turn to make dinner.�

    ( Its  that is used here is a contraction of� it is . An apostrophe must be used to make the sentence grammatically correct.)

  • Right :� It's  your turn to make dinner. =� It is  your turn to make dinner.
  • Wrong :� Its it ' s  tail that needs washing.�

    (The first� its  is a contraction of� it is , an apostrophe must be used. The second� its  is a possessive form and an apostrophe should not be used.)

  • Right :  It ' s its  tail that need washing. =� It is its  tail that needs washing.
 

Glossary