Plain English

The question to be decided is before us.

Claim your right to live.

163. The infinitive may also be used as an adverb to modify the meaning of a verb, adjective or adverb, thus:

He was forced to go.

They are slow to learn.

The fruit was not ripe enough to eat.

Note that the infinitives in these sentences may all be changed into adverb phrases. As for example in the first sentence, He was forced to go, the infinitive to go, which modifies the verb forced, may be changed to the adverb phrase, into going, thus, He was forced into going. In the second sentence, They are slow to learn, the infinitive to learn may be changed into the adverb phrase in learning, thus, They are slow in learning. In the last sentence, The fruit is not ripe enough to eat, the infinitive to eat, which modifies the adverb enough, may be changed into the adverb phrase, for eating, as for example, The fruit was not ripe enough for eating.

164. The infinitive is quite a useful form of the verb, and we will find that we use it very frequently in expressing our ideas. While it is not the asserting word in the sentence, it retains the nature of a verb and may have both an object and an adverb modifier. As for example, in the sentence:

I wish to learn my lesson quickly.

To learn is the infinitive, used as a noun, the object of the verb wish. The infinitive also has an object, to learn—what?My lesson is the object of the infinitive to learn. We also have an adverb modifier in the adverb quickly, which tells how I wish to learn my lesson. So the infinitive retains its verb nature, in that it may have an object and it may be modified by an adverb.

Exercise 3

Notice carefully the use of the infinitives in the following sentences. Underscore all infinitives.

1. To remain ignorant is to remain a slave.

2. Teach us to think and give us courage to act.

3. Children love to be praised, but hate to be censured.

4. To obey is the creed taught the working class by the masters.

5. To be exploited has always been the fate of the workers.

6. Ferrer wrote on his prison wall, "To love a woman passionately, to have an ideal which I can serve, to have the desire to fight until I win—what more can I wish or ask?"

7. The people wish the man to be punished for the crime.

8. Primitive man found plenty of wood to burn.

9. We have learned to use coal and oil.

10. The lecture to have been given this evening has been postponed.

11. They are eager to hear the news.

12. He has failed to come.

13. We felt the house shake on its foundation.

14. Have him find the book for me.

15. To be defeated is no crime; never to have dared is the real crime.

16. The rich will do anything for the poor except to get off their backs.

17. To have slept while others fought is your shame.

18. Claim your right to do, to dream and to dare.

Exercise 4

Write sentences containing the six infinitive forms of the verb obey.

DON'TS FOR INFINITIVES

165.Don't split your infinitives. Keep the to and the infinitive together as much as possible. Don't say, They intended to never come back. Say rather, They intended never to come back. Sometimes, however, the meaning can be more aptly expressed by placing the adverb modifier between the to and the infinitive, as for example:

To almost succeed is not enough.

It will be found to far exceed our expectations.

In these sentences the adverbs almost and far express our meaning more closely if they are placed between the to and the infinitive. Ordinarily, however, do not split your infinitives, but place the adverb modifier either before or after the infinitive.

166.Don't usetoby itself without the rest of the infinitive. Don't say, Do as I tell you to. Say instead, Do as I tell you to do; or, Do as I tell you. Don't say, He deceived us once and he is likely to again. Say rather, He deceived us once and he is likely to deceive us again, or to do so again.

167.Don't useandforto. Don't say, Try and go if you can. Say instead, Try to go if you can.

Correct the following sentences:

We ought to bravely fight for our rights.

I will do all my employer tells me to.

We shall try and get our lessons.

I ought to at least help my comrades but I am afraid to.

Exercise 5

Study carefully the infinitives in the following quotation. Notice which are active and which are passive infinitives.

The twenty thousand men prematurely slain on a field of battle, mean, to the women of their race, twenty thousand human creatures to be borne within them for months, to be given birth to in anguish, to be fed from their breasts and to be reared with toil, if the members of the tribe and the strength of the nation are to be maintained. In nations continually at war, incessant and unbroken child-bearing is by war imposed on all women if the state is to survive; and whenever war occurs, if numbers are to be maintained, there must be an increased child-bearing and rearing. This throws upon woman, as woman, a war tax, compared with which all that the male expends in military preparations is comparatively light.

It is especially in the domain of war that we, the bearers of men's bodies, who supply its most valuable munition, who, not amid the clamor and ardor of battle, but singly, and alone, with a three-in-the-morning courage, shed our blood and face death that the battle-field might have its food, a food more precious to us than our heart's blood; it is we, especially, who, in the domain of war, have our word to say, a word no man can say for us. It is our intention to enter into the domain of war and to labor there till in the course of generations we have extinguished it.—Olive Schreiner.

Exercise 6

Mark the participles and infinitives.