I - J

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.