The infinitive of a verb in Russian is a rule. Impersonal form of the verb

From this mysterious form begins the study. To correctly find it in context, you need to know exactly What is the infinitive in Russian. The concept of "verb infinitive" exists in such a position of this part of speech, in which it is impossible to determine the time of the action, and which subject performs it. When asked what form of the verb the infinitive is, there is a specific answer: the initial form.

In contact with

Translated from Latin, it sounds like this: “indefinite”. The questions that the initial form answers are: what to do? and what to do? Such parts of speech represent the action in a generalized way, without pointing to a specific person. This generalized action is the grammatical verbal meaning for the infinitive. There are several values, and they are permanent. According to the word in indefinite form, its form is determined. Examples of such dependence of the view on the question:

Draw - what to do? - an imperfect view.
Draw - what to do? - perfect view.

Important! The definition of the verb aspect depends on the prefix C - in the question.

Recognition

Suffixes

All personal forms have one feature: each of them has its own indefinite one. The infinitive answers questions with suffixes -ty or -ty. Knowing that these are suffixes of the infinitive, one can easily perform its morphemic analysis. These suffixes are formative. There are others infinitive suffixes, which pass into other morphemes:

-yva- - -iva,
-ova- - eva-.

Particular attention should be paid to the suffix -ch. This part came from the Old Slavonic language and is used in some words in the present tense. But the alternating h//k is included in the root.

Education

This fact is noteworthy: from the basis of the initial, the formation of all verb forms occurs. This function can also be performed by the stem of verbs in the present tense. In this case, the infinitive takes on the formation:

past tense;
subjunctive mood;
in the past time;
past participles.

For the formation of all other verb forms is responsible basis of the present.

Syntactic role

In terms of its role in a sentence, the infinitive is a mobile part of speech. He may be in the role any member of the proposal. How to define this function is clearly seen in specific examples.

Predicate: To live - to serve the motherland. Cell phones are suggested to be turned off.
Subject: Shouting is prohibited.
Definition inconsistent: Attempting to sneak away from the event proved to be impossible.
Addendum: I advise you to follow his instructions.
Circumstance: We went to our favorite lake to swim.

Infinitive as subject

Features of some members of the proposal

If the infinitive acts as a predicate, then it will denote an action performed either by the subject himself or by the person to whom it indicated. When it acts as a circumstance, most often attention is focused on the purpose for which the action of the object is performed. With the addition, another character is connected, which cannot even be discussed, only a narration is being told about his action.

Infinitive as a predicate

Punctuation

When the rule of putting a dash between the subject and the predicate is studied, attention is focused on the indefinite form of the verb. If both the subject and the predicate are expressed with this, then a dash between them is necessary. A striking example of such a syntactic construction is the call from the Ministry of Health, which is familiar to every citizen who cares about their health. (Smoking is bad for your health!).

Infinitive as circumstance

Finding the foundation

Knowing the features of the formation of the invariable part of speech, it is easy to find its basis. This is necessary for education such as participles and participles. For example, take the verb "done". It is in the singular, feminine and past tense. The stem must not contain the ending and suffix of the past tense. Thus, removing the ending -a and the suffix -l-, the desired stem of the infinitive is easily obtained: "did-".

An unmistakable definition

Every student must find initial shape and know how to put a verb in it. Knowing that the morphemes -ty and -ty are suffixes of the indefinite form of the verb, one can accurately determine that this is an infinitive. Now you can ask questions: “what to do?” or “what to do?”. For example, the verb "draw" requires the question "what to do?". And for “drawing”, only the question “what am I doing?” is suitable. Thus, the first word is an indefinite form, because in the second case the first person and singular are easily determined. There are no such categories in the verb “to draw”, it is indefinite.

The infinitive (from Latin infinitivus - indefinite), the indefinite form of the verb, is the form of the verb that names the action or the procedural state (watch, read, be) without indicating the time of the action, its relation to reality, the number of subjects of the action, and also the fact whether the subject of the action is the speaker, the interlocutor, or a third person. I. does not express the meanings of time, mood, number and person. It expresses only the meanings of the form (write - write), pledge (build - build), transitivity and intransitivity (paint, lie). Like the form they have in names, I. is the original form of the verb, which is given in dictionaries; I. consists of a stem and a suffix. Most verbs have a suffix -t in I., following the final vowel of the stem: weaken, crush, prick, blow. For several verbs, this suffix is found after consonants with or z: spin, put, fall, sit, eat, gnaw, climb (the same for prefixed verbs with the same roots). Some verbs have the suffix -ti: go, carry, crawl, graze, save, grow, lead, dawn, bloom, weave, revenge, carry, gnaw, pronounce, wander, row, scrape, observe, muck (bookish) , shake, prefixed verbs with the same roots, as well as the verb to get out (used in the Lithuanian language along with get out). The suffix -ti is always stressed; the exception is verbs with the prefix you-, which have an accent on this prefix: grow, fade, etc. Some of the verbs with the suffix -ti have parallel forms with the suffix -t, characteristic of colloquial speech, for example: weave - weave, bring - bring . Forms with the suffix -т were common in Lit. 19th century language along with the forms in -ty, cf.: “Saving the honor of my native land, I will have, without a doubt, to outweigh Tatyana's letter * (Pushkin); “She seemed like a sure shot of du comme and faut. (Shishkov, sorry: I don’t know how to translate) * (Pushkin).
Some verbs have a suffix -ch in I.: burn, lie down, clothe, attract, entertain, bake, call (obsolete), speak (obsolete and simple), doom (high), guard, flog, flow , neglect, shear, catch (along with catch), overtake (along with overtake), reach (along with reach), comprehend (along with comprehend), drag, crush, be able, and also in prefixed verbs with the same roots: ignite , roll over, bake, etc.
In vernacular and dialects, there are forms with the repetition of the suffix -ty after -ty: ittit, find, walk. These forms do not comply with the norms of lit. language, in which there is only one verb with such a repetition: to be lost.
In the vast majority of verbs, the basis of I. coincides with the basis of past. time. The exceptions are: 1) verbs, in which the basis of I. ends in -nu, and in the basis of prosh. time - well, may be absent, for example: perish, perish and perish-nu-l; fade, fade and fade-l; 2) verbs with the suffix -ch, in which the basis of I. ends in a vowel, and in the basis of past. time, this vowel is followed by a back-lingual consonant k or g, for example: take - shore, could - could, attract - attracted, bake - baked; 3) verbs, in which the basis of I. ends in -e or -i, and in the basis of past. time, these vowels are absent: tere-t - ter, re-t - per (simple), measure-t - measures, stretch-t - stretched, err-t-sya - err-sya, etc .; 4) verbs, in which the basis of I. ends in -s, and in the basis of past. time -s alternates with -b: scratch-ti - scraper, gres-ti - row, or is cut off: mes-ti - chalk, splash-ty - plaited, class-ty - cla-l, swear-ty - swear-l , es-th - e-l.
In the sentence, I. performs the syntactic functions of the subject (Smoking is harmful), a simple verbal predicate (“And the queen laugh, And shrug your shoulders ...”, Pushkin; The main thing is not to worry), the main member of the infinitive sentence (Open to him ?; Line up! ), the connective part of a complex verbal predicate (He wants to leave; I began to read), additions (I ask you to speak loudly), inconsistent definitions (“Impatience to get to Tiflis took possession of me *, Pushkin), goal circumstances (“The moon rose majestically in the sky shine for good people and the whole world *, Gogol).
I. also acts as part of the form of bud. difficult time: I will write. I., subordinate in the sentence to the personal form of the verb, can be subjective or objective. Subject I. denotes an action, the subject of which coincides with the subject of the personal form of the verb (He began to write). Objective I. denotes an action, the subject of which is the object of the personal form of the verb (He recommended that I write an article).

Morphology of the Russian literary language*

VERB

Conjugation of verbs

Infinitive

In the verb conjugation system, the infinitive is opposed to predicative and attributive forms that express a process in a certain relation to a person or object. In contrast, the infinitive itself does not express any syntactic relationship to other words of speech and is the most general abstract expression of the process: work, read, carry, seek, go, guard, interfere, lie down etc. Thus, in its grammatical meaning, the infinitive is a negative verb form.

The relation of the infinitive to other forms of the verb can be compared with the relation of the nominative case of nouns to the indirect cases. Both of these forms in relation to other forms of the same words are negative, or "direct" forms, which only express the signs they designate as a process or object, without indicating their relationship to other words of speech. Due to the grammatical proximity of the nominative case of a noun and the infinitive of verbs, which is also reflected in their syntactic use, nouns in the nominative case, denoting actions in abstraction from the person or object that produce them, for example: work, reading, walking, smoking etc., are close in meaning to the infinitives of verbs denoting the same actions without indicating the person or object that produces them: work, read, walk, smoke etc. The main difference between them lies in the way of expressing the indicated sign - action. The noun, denoting an action, expresses it as an object, and the infinitive expresses the same action as a process. Being a form that expresses the subject, the nominative case is opposed to the indirect cases of the noun, indicating the various relations of this subject to other words of speech. The infinitive, being an expression of the process, is opposed to other forms of the verb, as forms that express the relationship of the process to a person or object.

Since the infinitive is a form that does not express relations to other words of speech, it can act, like a noun in the nominative case, as a subject of a sentence: Smoking is forbidden, but you will be scared to die.(A. Chekhov), To redeem himself at will was his cherished dream.(I. Goncharov), It would be the business of his friends to write his biography.(A. Pushkin) , Life to live - not a field to go(last). In addition, the infinitive can be used as secondary members of the sentence (but not definitions and circumstances, for which the verb has special forms - participle and gerund): He will come to say goodbye, I lay down to rest, The doctor ordered the patient to lie down, He is a lover of playing the violin, Well, you are a master of singing songs!

In emotional speech, the infinitive is widely used in the meaning of predicative forms of the verb. So, it can act in the meaning of the indicative mood: I called him, and he ran! Thrush grieve, thrush yearn! The infinitive with negation and less often without negation can be used in the meaning of the imperative mood: Keep quiet! Don't talk! Don't mess around! Be silent! Sit quietly! and etc.

Such a variety in the syntactic use of the infinitive is explained by its grammatical meaning as a form that does not express any specific syntactic relationship. For the same reason, it is used to form analytic conjugations of a verb, such as the future compound: I will read, I will work, or complex forms of the imperative mood: let's work, let's read. In these forms, the infinitive carries only real meaning and non-syntactic formal meanings, while formal syntactic meanings are expressed by auxiliary particles or words attached to it.

Formation of the infinitive

The form of the infinitive is formed by means of suffixes -t, -sti (-st), -ti, -ch. Of all these suffixes, only one suffix is productive. -th. Through it, the infinitive is formed for all verbs of productive classes: play-th, white-t, draw-t, white-t, push-t, as well as for most of the verbs of non-productive classes: knit, stab, scream, grief, freeze, de-th, -shibi-t, ter-t etc. Other suffixes of the infinitive -sti (-st), -ti, -ch unproductive: they are present in a small group of verbs, and only verbs of unproductive classes.

Infinitive with suffix -sti (-sti) have verbs with a non-derivative stem past. and present. temp. into consonants b, s, h: rowing, rowing-ut - rowing; scraper, scraper-ut - scrape; carried, carried-ut - carry; pass, pass-ut - pa-sti; carried, carried-ut - carry, climbed, climbed-ut - le-zt and others. The only exception is one verb with a stem on b: -shib, -shib-ut - -shib. In addition to these verbs, through the suffix -sti (-sti) form the infinitive still verbs with a non-derivative stem present. temp. into consonants t, d, n, falling out in the basis of past. time: met-ut, me-l - me-sti; pleat-ut, ple-l - ple-sti; clad-ut, cla-l - class; strand-ut, strand-l - strand; curse-ut, curse-l - curse; ed-yat, e-l - e-st etc. All verbs that have a suffix -sti (-sti), except for the isolated verb there is, belong to III unproductive class.

Of the two variants of the infinitive suffix -sti and -st option -st have verbs with fixed stress based on the past tense: gry "z, gry" evil - gry "zt; kla" l, kla "whether - kla" st; se "l, se" whether - se "st and others, as well as one verb, in which, due to the loss of a fluent vowel in the basis of the past tense, the stress is transferred to the ending: -chel, -chli "- -che"st (for-, pro-, y-). Another variant of this suffix -sti presented for verbs with past tense stress on the ending (except, of course, for the masculine form, where, due to the lack of an ending, the stress naturally stands on the basis): rowed "- row", carried "- carry", carried "- carry", stranded "- revenge"etc. Variant -sti always has stress on itself and only for verbs with a prefix you-, transferring stress to itself, it is unstressed: row" - you "row, carry" - you "carry, lead" sti - you "lead etc.

With suffix -whose the infinitive is formed in verbs with a non-derivative basis of the past and present tense, ending in back palate to and G: peck, pek-ut - oven; attracted, attracted-ut - attracted; shore, shore-ut - take care; burn, burn-ut - well-who and others. These verbs also belong to the third unproductive class. But apart from them, the suffix -whose in the infinitive has another verb of the second non-productive class, which in the past tense has a non-derivative stem to the back palatine G, and in the present tense the derivative stem with the suffix -n-: reached - reached-ut - reach. Parallel to reach the usual form of the infinitive for the second non-productive class is also used reach.

Infinitive suffix -ti present in only one isolated verb: walked - go - go(spelling . go and to go).

When forming an infinitive, these suffixes, as a rule, are attached to the basis of the past tense. From this stem, the infinitive is formed for all verbs of productive classes: game-l - play-be, white-l - white-be, rice-l - draw-be, white-l - white-be, push-l - push-be, and for most verbs of non-productive classes: elm-l - knit-th, kol-l - stab-th, screaming-l - shouting-th, grief-l - grief-t, de-l - de-t, zhi-l - zhi-t etc. But for some verbs of non-productive classes, the infinitive suffix is attached to a stem that is different from the stem of the past tense. These are, firstly, almost all verbs of the second unproductive class (except child, become, delete), i.e. verbs with a past non-derivative stem and a present tense derived stem with a suffix -n-: they form an infinitive from a special stem with a suffix -well-, compare: black - black-ut - black-well, drog - drogn-ut - drog-well, chill - chill-ut - chill-well, sluggish - vyan-ut - vya-well-be and etc.; secondly, most of the verbs of the III non-productive class, namely, verbs with a non-derivative basis of the past and present tenses into consonants k, d, b, s, h, in which the infinitive is formed from the stem without these consonants: peck - pek-ut - furnace, guard - guard-ut - guard-ch, rowing - row-ut - row-stee, carried - carry-ut - not-stee, carried - carried-ut - carry etc., then a verb -shib - -shib-ut, in which the infinitive is formed from the stem to the suffix -and-: -shib-and-t, - and finally, verbs with a non-derivative stem into a consonant R, forming an infinitive from a stem to a vowel -e-: ter - tr-ut - ter-e-ty, lane - pr-ut - lane and etc.; thirdly, one isolated verb forms an infinitive not from the stem of the past tense, but from the stem of the present tense, cf .: walked - go-ut - go-tee.

Mood forms of the verb

A distinctive feature of verbs is that they have special predicative forms, i.e. forms in which the verb appears in the sentence as a predicate. Other parts of speech cannot be predicates themselves, because they do not have such forms. Nouns, adjectives, numerals and adverbs act as a predicate only with the help of a special functional linking word that expresses the predicative forms that they lack, cf .: Here the city will be founded in spite of the arrogant neighbor. (A. Pushkin), You will be a hero in appearance. (M. Lermontov) etc. Thus, according to the formation of predicative forms, the verb opposes the rest of the parts of speech, as a part of speech that has predicative forms, parts of speech that do not have these forms.

The predicative forms of the verb are expressed by special forms called inclinations. By means of these forms, differences in the nature of the statement, which is expressed by the verb, as the predicate of the sentence, are indicated in relation to the reality or unreality of this statement. In modern Russian, there are three main forms of mood: indicative, conditional and imperative.

Indicative means that the process expressed by the verb is considered as real, as actually happening, for example: He wrote a letter, He writes a letter, He will write a letter; or: He didn't write a letter He won't write a letter etc. The indicative mood is opposed to the conditional and imperative moods.

Conditional mood means that the process expressed by the verb is considered not as real, but as expected, for example: He would have written to you, If only he had written, You would have written us something, I would have written if I had not been so busy; and others. In the same way, not as a real process is denoted in imperative mood that expresses the impulse to action: Write a letter Let's write Let him write. Expressing the volitional attitude of the speaker to the person prompted to action, the imperative mood is an emotional, expressive form and in this respect it opposes the indicative and conditional moods, which are not forms of expression of will.

Indicative tense forms

The indicative mood is expressed by the forms of time, indicating the time when the process expressed by the verb takes place. The designation of the time of the process is made in relation to the moment of speech, i.e. in relation to the time at which the speaker is speaking. Consequently, the forms of time indicate the relationship between the time of the process and the moment of speech. In relation to the moment of speech, the process can be designated either as occurring before it, or simultaneously with it, or after it, or, finally, the process can be designated as occurring without regard to the moment of speech. In Russian, only the indicative mood has forms of time, while they are absent in the conditional and imperative moods, and the process expressed in these moods is always designated as occurring regardless of the moment of speech. The indicative mood, thus, as a form denoting the time of the process in relation to the moment of speech, opposes the conditional and imperative moods, as forms denoting a process that takes place without regard to the time of speech.

In modern Russian, the indicative mood has three forms of time: past, present and future. Their formation and meaning are closely related to the aspect of the verb. All three forms of time are available only for imperfective verbs, while perfective verbs form only two tenses: past and future.

The past tense form indicates that the process expressed by the verb preceded the moment of speech. At the same time, in imperfective verbs, the process is expressed as unfolding in the past without indicating its completeness, for example: Evening, do you remember, the blizzard was angry, the haze hovered in the cloudy sky, the moon, like a pale spot, looked through the gloomy clouds ...(A. Pushkin) For perfective verbs, the process is designated as completed by the moment of speech, at the moment it reaches the limit: I took your book, Clouds hung over the forest, A delegation arrived in Moscow, Father went on a business trip. Denoting a process completed by the moment of speech, perfective verbs in the past tense can express that the results of this process exist at the very moment of speech. Therefore, the examples given can mean: “I have your book”, “clouds over the forest”, “father is currently on a business trip”.

The present tense form is present only for imperfective verbs. The main temporal meaning of this form is an expression of a process that takes place regardless of the moment of speech, constantly or usually, cf.: The earth revolves around the sun, the Volga flows into the Caspian Sea, the fish swim, and the birds fly, the tram stops at our very house, he often comes to us etc. Denoting a process that occurs constantly or usually, this form thus includes in the total time of the course of the process and the time that coincides with the moment of speech. This meaning of this form allows it to be used in the meaning of the actual present tense, i.e. to express a process that occurs simultaneously with the moment of speech: I quickly fly along cast-iron rails, I think my own thought.(N. Nekrasov), And now look out the window: under the blue skies, magnificent tents, shining in the sun, the snow lies, the transparent forest alone turns black, and the spruce turns green through the hoarfrost, and the river glistens under the ice.. (A. Pushkin) The meaning of the actual present tense, therefore, is a particular, although not a rare case of using this form. Only this form can designate the process that takes place at the moment of speech, which is why it is called the present tense form.

The meaning of the present tense form allows it to also be used to express a process that occurs in the time preceding the moment of speech. This happens, for example, when the speaker, reporting on the past, depicts it as if it were happening at the present time, cf.: I went to him, ringing, knocking: no one unlocks ... In this case, the time of the process does not correspond to the moment of speech, but to the time of some event or process that occurred before it. For verbs with the meaning of movement, the present tense form can denote a process that takes place immediately, in the near future after the moment of speech, for example: Say that I'm going now, Tomorrow we're going out of town, I'm running, I'm running!

The future tense form means that the time of the process expressed by the verb will follow the moment of speech. The form of the future tense has such a meaning, in fact, only for imperfective verbs, i.e. the so-called future is complex, for example: I will think that you are bored in a foreign land.(M. Lermontov), He will constantly put them in a difficult position.(Ch. Uspensky) , You will accurately receive the same as before.(A.Chekhov) The future tense of perfective verbs (the so-called future simple) is similar in its temporal meaning to the meaning of the present tense form of imperfective verbs, just as these forms are similar in their formation. Namely, in perfective verbs, the future tense means that the time of the process is irrespective of the moment of speech, cf .: Whatever he notices or hears about Olga, he writes about it.(A. Pushkin), Tatyana into the woods ... then a long bough will suddenly hook her by the neck, then she will tear out golden earrings by force, then a wet shoe will get stuck in the fragile snow from her sweet little leg, then she will drop her handkerchief, she has no time to pick it up. (A. Pushkin) However, unlike the present, this form denotes the process in its completeness, and this allows us to present it as carried out in the future, i.e. as finished after the moment of speech: In the morning the morning light will flash and the bright day will play; and I - perhaps I will descend into the mysterious canopy of the tomb, and the memory of the young poet will be swallowed up by the slow Summer, the world will forget me. (A. Pushkin) According to the expression of the process in its completeness after the moment of speech, the future tense for perfective verbs (future simple) is opposed to the future tense for imperfective verbs (future compound), which also means that the process will occur after the moment of speech, but not contains indications of completeness, completeness of this process. Thus, the form of the future tense in perfective verbs is correlated, on the one hand, with the form of the present tense and, on the other hand, with the form of the future tense in imperfective verbs.

To be continued

* From the book: Avanesov R.I., Sidorov V.N. Essay on the grammar of the Russian literary language. Part I. Phonetics and morphology. Moscow: Uchpedgiz, 1945.

A special form of the verb - it is also called initial or indefinite - is the infinitive (from the Latin infinitivus - "indefinite").

It denotes a state and action that is not related to person, number, mood, or time.

This invariable form is easily recognizable by the suffixes TH, TI, CH, which are either at the end of the word or before the postfix SYA: walk, go, save, laugh.

In general, the infinitive can be called a "chameleon", it can be similar to nouns, to words of the state category. We can verify this when we analyze sentences with infinitives.

Do you need to know what an infinitive is? When will this knowledge be applied? Of course, it is important to have information about verb forms and apply them in practice. Firstly, when we do a morphological analysis of the verb, secondly, to determine its conjugation, thirdly, to choose the correct spelling of personal verb endings and, finally, to find out its syntactic role and not forget about putting a dash between the subject and predicate.

In addition, forms of the past tense (CHITA + L), forms of the conditional mood (WOULD DECIDE), some forms of participles (REVIEW + LOUS, CENSUS + NNY) and participles (WIN + IN, RETURN + LICE + S) are formed from the infinitive.

Every infinitive has only permanent signs:

view (perfect/imperfect),
transitivity,
recurrence,
conjugation.

When defining a view, we set questions: WHAT TO DO? (sing, carry, bake) and WHAT TO DO? (sing, bring, bake).

Transition the infinitive transfers the action to the subject, combined with nouns in Vin. case without a preposition (build a tower, take out tea, protect the homeland) and in Rod. case when negating or indicating a part of an object and a large amount (not finding a way, eating meat, picking berries).

Intransitive the infinitive can have the postfix СЯ / СЬ, then it is called reflexive (smile, take care, rush). The intransitive infinitive is combined with nouns in Dan., Creation., Proposition. cases (go to friends, chat with a friend, think about family), as well as in Vin. and Rod. cases with prepositions (enter the house, wait for a friend).

If we define the conjugation by the infinitive, then we do not forget about exception words. At I conjugation on IT: SHAVING and CUTTING; II has conjugations on ET and AT: see, look, twirl, offend, endure, hate, depend and drive, hold, breathe, hear) and in different conjugated forms (want, run, eat, give).

As a rule, we look at the last three letters: the I conjugation includes verbs in OT, UT, YTY (STICK, wither, blow, cover), where the verbal suffixes O, NU and even root vowels U, Y are in front of TH.

However, some of the verbs in AT, YAT, ET with the verbal suffixes A, I, E, which are usually referred to the first conjugation, are also characteristic of the second conjugation, for example: be silent - silent, STAND - stands, SIT - sits. The examples show that they can be recognized by the stressed personal endings of the conjugated forms. So, we use the check using the forms of the present tense.

The II conjugation mainly includes verbs in IT (repeat) and 11 exception verbs, which we have already listed above. But even here there are some features: the first conjugation includes a small group of infinitives with a root vowel AND (beat, drink, sew, rot).

Let's try to determine the conjugation of the verbs to be, go, sit down, go out, children, wander, go, reap. We form the plural forms of the present tense: to be - they will, to go - they go, to sit down - they sit down, to get out - they will go out, to children - denUt, to wander - they wander, to go - they go, to reap - they reap or press (meaningfully!). All of them have I conjugation, but their personal endings can be unstressed and stressed.

How does the infinitive behave in a sentence? In different ways, being not only a predicate, but also a subject, an addition, a definition and a circumstance. It denotes the subject of speech in a two-part sentence and acts as a subject: Smoking is harmful to health (compare: Smoking is harmful to health).

How to recognize the infinitive in this role? The first sign is the position in front of the predicate. The second is the absence of any dependence on other members of the proposal. The third sign - the infinitive can be replaced by a synonymous noun.

Consider examples:

1) Hunting on skis is very tiring. 2) It's not easy to please you.

The infinitive "to hunt" is in the first place in the sentence, does not depend on other words, is easily replaced by a noun: Hunting on skis is very tiring. But in the second example, such a replacement is impossible! We ask a question from the predicate, expressed by the category of state EASY, to the subject: it is easy (what?) to please.

It is not difficult to define the infinitive as a simple verbal predicate. Here we take into account that the form of such a predicate has the meaning of the future tense: I will ask you for help. The predicate consists of two words I WILL and ASK. This is a challenging future!

When defining a compound verbal predicate (it is also called "infinitive"!) we start from the principle: the infinitive carries the main meaning, and the auxiliary part consists of conjugated forms of modal words and phase verbs.

MODAL verbs, adjectives and words of the state category: be able, want, be able, prepare, decide, love, follow; must, must, ready, glad; it is possible, it is impossible, it is necessary, it is time.

PHASE verbs denote the beginning, continuation or end of an action: start, become, accept, continue, stop, finish.

Let's analyze the examples:

1) She shouldn't think about him. 2) The girl stopped crying and wiped away her tears.

In the first case, a MODAL WORD is used, expressed by a short adjective, in the second case, a PHASE verb "stopped".

The most dangerous thing is to confuse the compound verb predicate with the addition, which is the infinitive! In this case, he answers questions of indirect cases, is associated with an auxiliary verb with the meaning of a request / demand: asked, advised, helped, forced, ordered, persuaded, demanded. It can be replaced by a noun as an object.

In the examples (Grandfather forbade me to walk in the rain. He taught me to save words.) we replace auxiliary verbs with nouns and ask questions of indirect cases: forbade (vin. case: what?) walks; taught (Dan. case: what?) savings.

And besides this, we take into account that with the infinitive as a complement, actions are performed by different persons, and not by one person:

1) I decided to go to the village. 2) My grandfather told me to go to the village.

In the first sentence, "I" decided and I will leave myself, in the second - my grandfather ordered, and "I" will go.

The infinitive in the role of an inconsistent definition depends on the noun and is associated with it by adjunction: The habit of wandering overcame him. She asked to help her parents. We make a synonymous replacement: the habit (what?) of wandering; with a request (what?) for help. In this case, the connection between the words is control.

The infinitive as a circumstance expresses the meaning of the goal and answers the questions FOR WHAT PURPOSE? WHY? He is attached to an auxiliary verb with the meaning of movement: he went to freshen up, hurries to get dressed, gathered to meet, sat down to write, went for a swim, invited to have dinner.

You can rebuild the sentence and make a synonymous replacement with the help of the adjective part of the NGN: I went to freshen up; hurries to get dressed; gathered to meet; sat down to write; left to bathe; invited to dinner.

Suppose, for syntactic analysis, sentences are given in which you need to find the infinitive and determine its syntactic function:

1) It was difficult to speak. 2) It was difficult to solve the problem. 3) It was decided to go to the village. 4) Waiting for an answer is not ordered. 5) Given to repair.

In the first two-part sentence, the infinitive "to speak" is at the very beginning, acting as the subject of the predicate "it was difficult."

In the second and third one-part impersonal sentences, the infinitives "decide" and "go" are included in the compound nominal predicate.

In the fourth "I" I decided to go myself, of my own free will. Here the infinitive "wait" is an addition: waiting is not ordered (what?), "I" am waiting, but I am not ordered to wait.

In the fifth, the infinitive "repair" is a circumstance of the goal: given (why?) for repair.

As you can see, it is difficult to determine the roles of the infinitive, but it is possible. Let's move on to training. We propose to complete the task to determine the syntactic role of the infinitive. Then you can check your answers!

TASKS

1. What member of the sentence is the infinitive? Write your answer in words.

I told the driver to go. I advise you to return home. You asked me to tell about my project.

2. What member of the sentence is the infinitive? Write your answer in words.

Mtsyra had one desire to win. I got the opportunity to get to know my fellow traveler better.