Infinitives are used to explain why someone is doing something, often replacing the phrase “in order to.” In this case, they act as adverbs to describe the main verb. For example, the verb be -which is often conjugated to is, are, was, were, etc.-becomes the full infinitive to be, as in Shakespeare’s famous infinitive example from Hamlet :įull infinitives are used in the following situations: You can create a full infinitive by taking the base form of a verb and adding to in front of it. Full infinitivesįull infinitives, also known as to-infinitives, are the most common infinitives in writing. Below, we explain when and how to use each. There are two main types of infinitives: full infinitives and bare infinitives. The second sentence, however, describes the action of winning. In the first sentence with the infinitive, the action of “winning” is not actually done the sentence simply discusses the idea of winning. The first sentence uses the infinitive form of the verb win as a noun the main verb of the sentence is actually “need.” The second sentence uses the standard form of win as an actionable verb. For example, take a look at these two sentences:

The purpose of infinitives is to discuss an action in general instead of a specific instance of the action being done.

Usually, infinitives are formed by adding the word to before the base form of the verb, as in to be, but sometimes the base form of the verb is used alone (we explain more in the next section). Every type of verb can be put into the infinitive form, even phrasal verbs. Infinitives are a form of verb that allow the word or a group of words to be used as a noun, adjective, or adverb. Grammarly helps you communicate confidently Write with Grammarly What is an infinitive, and what is its function?