Biographies Characteristics Analysis

Involves the infinitive. The infinitive of a verb in Russian is a complex phenomenon

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, draw, 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).

Infinitive(from Latin infinitus - indefinite) - an indefinite form of a verb that names an action or a procedural state without indicating the time of the action, its relation to reality and to the subject of the action. The infinitive answers the questions what to do? what to do?: love, be, say.

As the most abstract, most generalized verb form, infinitive opposed to a complex of personal forms. is the most "pure" representative of the lexical meaning. He expresses the general grammatical meaning of the verb(action value) and has only those morphological features, which are constant for all verb forms: recurrence, transitivity, form, conjugation.

In relation to personal forms, it is characterized by a high degree of regularity: in Russian there are almost no personal forms of the verb from which it is impossible to form an infinitive and vice versa.

opposed to the personal forms of the verb, because it has no number, no person, no mood, no tense. It has only categories of the form ( write - write), grammatical meanings of recurrence ( build - build) and transitivity ( paint, lay) associated with the collateral category.

means of forming the infinitive, as a verb form are suffixes -т(do, sleep, live, saw) and -ti (carry, crawl, go).

Most infinitives with stems ending in a vowel have suffix -th. For some verbs, this suffix can also be placed after the consonant: gnaw, put. Suffix -ti(more ancient) can be found in a small group of verbs with a consonant stem. This suffix is ​​always stressed. Some forms from -ti have options with -t:carry - carry(were common in the literary language in the nineteenth century). Suffixes -th and -ty shaping and therefore are not included in the stem of the infinitive.

The Russian language has verb infinitives ending in on -ch(keep, guard, bake). In these verbs, -ch is part of the root. Such infinitives are formed from personal forms of verbs in -g, -k, -x with alternation: shore - protect, bake - oven. The ancient forms of these verbs are take care, pekti. As a result of historical changes, the combinations [gt] and [kt] formed the sound [h]. In ancient forms, the morphemic composition is clear: [g] and [k] are part of the root, and [t] is part of the suffix.

In addition to the formative suffixes -ty and -ty, the infinitive is characterized by the suffixes -a-, -e-, -i-, -yva-, -iva-, -ova-, -eva-, -nu-, etc.: hear, sit, saw, use, grieve, relax, etc.

In a sentence, the infinitive can perform the function of any member of the sentence. Most often it is part of the predicate.

The girl began to write poetry at the age of 6 at the same time in Russian, German and French (predicate).

And the queen laugh and shrug her shoulders (predicate).

Smoking is prohibited (subject).

Another attempt to rest was unsuccessful (inconsistent definition).

I suggest you sit and be silent (addition).

We went to some kind of ditch to shoot and to swim in a small river (a circumstance).

As the subject can be an independent infinitive. Usually it is in front of the predicate and is separated from it during pronunciation by a pause, and in writing by a dash.

, included in the predicate, denotes the action of the person named subject.

An infinitive that performs the syntactic function of an adverb goal, refers to the verbal predicate denoting movement. In some cases, such an infinitive can be replaced by a noun.

The infinitive as a complement denotes the action of another person, sometimes not named at all.

All verb forms are formed from two stems: stems of the infinitive and stems of the present tense.

From the stem of the infinitive the infinitive itself, the past tense and the subjunctive mood, the participle and the past participle, are formed, from present tense basics- present tense, imperative mood, participle and participle of the present tense.

To find the stem of the infinitive, from the feminine singular form of the past tense, we subtract the final -la: to say, said - the basis of the infinitive skaz -a-.

To find the basis of the present tense, from the form of the 3rd person plural of the present tense we subtract -at or -ut: to say, they will say - the basis of the present tense is say-.

Do you have any questions? Don't know what an infinitive is?
To get the help of a tutor - register.
The first lesson is free!

site, with full or partial copying of the material, a link to the source is required.

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, end.

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.

Answer: ____________________________ .

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

Answer: ____________________________ .

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

The fishermen settled down on the bank of the river to fish. We stopped by to inquire about an upcoming tour.

Answer: ____________________________ .

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

Fate cannot pour bounties alone. The roads began to crumble right before our eyes.

Answer: ____________________________ .

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

Answer: ____________________________ .

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

We started to work. You must apologize. Have you finished rewriting?

Answer: ____________________________ .

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

Will he fight no more? We will be waiting for you. Dreams will be good.

Answer: ____________________________ .

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

The desire to wander attacked him. I also had personal reasons to go on vacation to the Caucasus.

Answer: ____________________________ .

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

Parents with children come to the park to relax. I went ashore to enjoy the scent of the sea.

Answer: ____________________________ .

ANSWERS

1.Addition.
2. Definition.
3. Subject.
4. Circumstance.
5. Compound verbal predicate.
6.Addition.
7. Compound verbal predicate.
8. Simple verbal predicate.
9. Definition.
10. Circumstance.

Literature

1. Glukhikh V.M. The Infinitive as a Member of a Sentence (Material for Parsing in a Pedagogical University) / Russian Language at School. - 2002. - No. 4.

2. Kazakova L.F. Studying the syntactic functions of the infinitive in the 7th grade / Russian language at school. - 1988. - No. 6.

3. Politova I.N. Phrases with a dependent infinitive as part of a sentence / Russian language at school. - 2009. - No. 1.

4. Sergeeva Zh.A. On the syntactic functions of the infinitive in sentences like Decided to go / Ordered to go / Russian language at school. - 2006. - No. 2.

5. Tukhvatulina S.I. Sentences like Riding fun and Fun skating in terms of semantic and intonational integrity /Russian language at school. - 2014. - No. 1.

If you want to learn a language, start with verbs. After all, it is this part of speech that occupies the largest place in all reference books and dictionaries of any language, including English. Despite the fact that the verb has several forms, in these very dictionaries it is usually given in its simple (initial) form, and for good reason. After all, the infinitive in English, perhaps, is used more often than others. It is about him that we will talk today.

First, let's figure out what an infinitive is.

An infinitive in English is an indefinite or initial form of a verb that names actions and can function as both a noun and a verb. The infinitive refers to non-personal verb forms, that is, to English forms that do not have a number, person, tense or mood.

The infinitive has certain features that characterize and distinguish it from any other kind of verb:

  1. The infinitive is preceded by the particle to, which, however, may be omitted in certain cases. However, if the particle is present almost always, it stands just before the infinitive.
  2. The infinitive answers the questions "what to do?", "what to do?"

Infinitive in English: forms

If in Russian there is only one infinitive form, in English there are six of them. Table for clarity:

The passive infinitive in Continuous and Perfect Continuous is simply not used. Other forms are used extremely rarely, with the exception of the simple one. In the absence of such forms in Russian, they are usually translated in a simple form.

Infinitive turns

The infinitive construction in English is divided into 3 following types:

  1. Complex object, also known as The Objective Infinitive Construction.
  2. Complex subject (Complex subject) or The Subjective Infinitive Construction (Subjective infinitive construction). The subject infinitive is usually used with passive verbs.
  3. The For-to-Infinitive construction or infinitive construction with a preposition

Despite such a variety of infinitive phrases, they are not always used. The object infinitive phrase is the most used phrase in the list, followed by the subject infinitive phrase.

Functions of the infinitive in a sentence

In a sentence, the infinitive can act as almost any member of the sentence.

  1. As a subject:
  1. And the verb part of the compound predicate:
  1. In the definition function:

It is worth noting that the word that defines a noun in Russian may not always look like a standard definition.

  1. Purpose condition:

Often, unions can be used before the infinitive in this case: in order to (in order to) and so as (to):

Usage with particle to

The infinitive with the particle to is used in 99 percent of cases. For example:

  1. An objective infinitive phrase almost always requires the particle to. This infinitive phrase is characterized by verbs that express:
  • Desire: want (want), wish (wish), desire (want):
  • Mental activity: think (think), believe (believe), expect (expect), suppose (assume):
  • The object infinitive turnover also includes words expressing an order, permission or prohibition: order (order), encourage (encourage), allow (allow), permit (allow), prohibit (prohibit):
  1. The subjective infinitive turnover also did not stand aside. In it, the particle to is used with verbs:
  • say (say), state (declare), allow (allow) in the suffering voice:
  • perception and mental activity in the passive voice:
  • with such verbs as appear / seem (seem), happen (happen):
  • And also with to be (un) likely - probably / unlikely, to be certain / to be sure - to be sure / definitely:
  1. The particle to in English is also inherent in the infinitive turnover with the preposition for. Such a construction is formed by attaching the preposition for to a noun or pronoun with an infinitive. The noun in this case is in the common case, and the pronoun is in the object case. Personal pronouns in English in the objective case should in no case be confused with their subjective (or subjective) case:
subjective case Objective case
I - I me - me / me / me
we - we us - us / us / us
you - you you - you / you
you - you you - you / you / you
he - he

it - this / it

him - him / him / them

her - her / her

they - they them - them / them / them

As you can see, the object case tends to be used as an object, while the subject pronouns are characterized by the role of the subject.

The object case can be translated in various ways, however, since it is preceded by the preposition for (for), accordingly, in this case, the object case of the pronoun will answer the questions “for whom?” or "to whom?"

Consider the object case and the infinitive as an example:

  1. The verb in the infinitive without to can also be used in short imperative sentences. Usually they do not pay attention to the subject and other members of the sentence. Moreover, these terms can be omitted.
Go! Forward!
look at the picture. Look at this picture.

Infinitive in English: gerund or infinitive

The use of the infinitive in English can sometimes cause a number of difficulties. Everything seems to be simple, you take a verb from the dictionary and insert it into an English sentence. However, with further development of the forms of English verbs, when the study comes to a gerund or a verb with an ing suffix, confusion begins to occur in the head. To avoid such a problem, let's look at verbs that are used only in the infinitive or only in the ing form:

  1. Verbs such as agree, refuse, manage, decide, plan, offer, attempt, forget, promise, deserve ( deserve) are always used with the infinitive. These English verbs just need to be memorized. Table examples:
  1. At the same time, there are verbs that are used in a gerund and do not have an infinitive form after them. These include: miss (bored), give up (stop), go on (continue), carry on (continue), involve (include), finish (finish). A few examples:
  1. There are also words that can be used in both forms without much change in meaning:
  1. The meanings of other words may change depending on which form you use: infinitive or gerund. Study the table with such examples:

Infinitive in English: infinitive without particle to

There are also situations in which you need to use infinitives, but without the to particle. So, for example, the to particle is omitted after:

  1. English verbs make (to force) and let (to allow) with a noun or object pronoun:
  1. The verbs of perception feel (feel), see (see), hear (hear), for which the object infinitive turnover is responsible.
  1. Modal verbs:

Exceptions are modal verbs, which have the particle to in their composition. These include: have (got) to, ought to and be to.

Infinitive in English: negation

Particular attention should be paid to the formation of negative sentences. The fact is that to use the infinitive in a sentence, you can use two forms of negation. You must not confuse them, because otherwise you can simply be misunderstood.

  • To sentences for negating the main action (verb before the infinitive), a simple English negative form with an auxiliary verb and a negative particle not is added:
  • To negate an action in the infinitive, a negative not is placed before the particle to:

Infinitive in English: other features

  1. If several verbs with infinitive forms are used in the sentence, and the particle to is used in their case, then it is put only to the first infinitive:
  1. The English sentence is characterized by another feature: if in the sentence the infinitive that was used at the beginning is reused at the end, the verb itself is usually omitted, and only the to particle remains in the sentence, which implies it (this verb):
She asks me to go to the party but I don't want to (go). She asks me to go to the party, but I don't want to (go).

Today we looked at the infinitive in English. As you can see, the use of the infinitive is not very difficult, but there are certain points in its use that should be taken into account. To consolidate the topic, periodically return to the rules and examples in the tables, do exercises and reinforce each such exercise with practice. After all, there is nothing more simple and effective in learning a language than communicating with native speakers.

Often, when studying Russian at school, students do not fully understand what the infinitive is. The first thing to mention when talking about this form is that it refers to verbs. It is the most generalized and abstract from the whole complex of personal forms. So why is it needed in speech and what is an infinitive in general?

Description

In Russian, a compound predicate containing two words is quite common. If the second of them has one of the formative suffixes (-t or -ti), then this is the infinitive of the verb. For example, played - likes to play, slept - wants to sleep. The ending of such words depends on what sound comes before the suffix. If it is a vowel, then the verb will end in -t (jump, eat, plow, be silent). If it is a consonant and is part of the root, then the ending will be -ti (go, carry, carry), but there are exceptions. If the stress does not fall on the suffix, it turns again into a short -t (for example, climb). If the verb ends in -chi, remember that this is part of the root, not the ending. It's just that such words have a zero inflectional suffix. It is easy to confirm this with conjugation, for example, flow - flows, burn - burns, oven - bakes. Thus, the impersonal form of the verb, which is characterized by indefiniteness, is the infinitive. Examples of its use:

1) Need be able to keep silent in any situation.

2) Play it was pretty interesting.

Origin

Research in this area was carried out by the famous Russian linguist and semiotician V.V. Ivanov. He believes that the infinitive of a verb in Russian goes back to nouns that have a verbal stem when declined in the accusative and dative cases, since these cases are most prone to dynamics. But the main difference of this form is the absence of any personal expressions. Verbal nouns in declension show that their creation was facilitated by the desire to represent the action as an object. But the infinitive that arose from them not only did not lose its original purpose, but also expanded its scope. But many linguists reject this theory, since it has no confirmation in the written sources of the time when the norms of the Russian language were just being formed. In addition, such a view is based on the version of the existence of the Proto-Slavic language, which is also under great doubt so far. Therefore, there are other versions of the origin of the infinitive. The first of them is that this form of the verb once agreed with the subject, which had a dative form (if you don’t know, it’s not for her to decide, he can’t sleep). The second - imperfect verbs in the future tense had a special form, which lost agreement on persons and numbers (He asked me to be silent).

Many doubts

But contradictions in the controversy of researchers are caused not only by the origin of the infinitive, but also by its main feature - belonging to the verb. Some of the scholars believe that this is only a form of names, which in no way can denote an action. Others say that this is a nominative, that is, the original form of the verb, which carries a potential relationship to something or someone. That is, the infinitive gives us only an idea for action and does not have additional complications, like other categories. The argument used by all defenders of the indefinite form of the verb is the species - a sign by which the action can be perfect or imperfect. This proves that the verb in the form of the infinitive has a right to exist in the Russian language, and that it belongs to this part of speech. But that's not all. Reflexivity, which is inherent in verbs, also exists in the infinitive.

In German

Many languages ​​around the world have this form of the verb. German was no exception. What is the infinitive in this grammar? This is an abstract action that has nothing to do with who performs it. This is the basic form of the verb, which in Old High German is often conjugated with other words from this part of speech. But this ability has not survived to the present day. With the infinitive in this language, there is the preposition zu, which has completely lost its original meaning and has become just a formal accompaniment. In German, there is also a similarity of the indefinite form with verbal nouns, but it is very small. It is expressed in substantiation, that is, in the transition of actions into objects due to their ability to point to one or another object. Another thing that brings this form closer to names is that it is often used as a complement or subject. In German, 6 forms of the infinitive are distinguished, which are divided according to the signs of an asset, a liability and a state.

In English

The non-personal form of the verb in English, which only refers to the action, but does not carry any information about who performed it, is the infinitive. A table with examples for this language is studied at school. It looks like this:

The table shows that the infinitive has both tense and voice in the active state, and only tense in the passive state.

One of the main features of this form is the particle to. It goes down only in rare cases. The infinitive can be used in six forms:

  • simple in the active voice;
  • prolonged;
  • perfect;
  • completely long;
  • simple in the passive voice;
  • perfect in the passive voice.

Which form will be used depends entirely on the predicate in the sentence. If the particle to is not used, this is the so-called "naked infinitive". This is possible in three cases:

1) It comes after one of the modal verbs (may, will, shall and others).

2) It is built into a construction that has a verb of perception (feel, see, hear and others), but often in such cases it is replaced by a gerund.

3) It stands next to the verbs of motivation or permission (bid, have, make, and others).

in french

What is the infinitive in French linguistics? This is a non-conjugated, and therefore non-personal form of one of the most important parts of speech, namely the verb. In this language, it can denote both an action and an object. In a sentence, it can be a subject, an object (direct, indirect and adverbial), a predicate. A verb that is in the infinitive form always ends in -ir. It can be in past or present tense.

Thus, a verb that is characterized by indefiniteness and has no connection with the one who performs the action is an infinitive. Examples of this form can be found in many languages ​​of the world, for example, in Russian, German, English and French.