The Infinitive and the ing-form

May) spendthe day in the open air. I amafraid that he may getangry with me. The forms can {may) + infinitive are in the Indicative Mood here, so the rules of the sequence of tenses should be observed, e.g. On Sundays we always wentouting so that the children could

(might) spend the day in the open air.
I was afraid that he might get angry with me.

VERBALS (NON-FINITE FORMS OF THE VERB)

§ 163. There are three verbals in English: the infinitive, the
ing-form and the participle.

The infinitive is a plain verb stem which is usually preceded
by the unstressed particle to, e.g. to take. In addition to the sim-
ple form, the infinitive has the following analytical forms: con-
tinuous — to be taking, perfect — to have taken, perfect continu-
ous — to have been taking, simple passive — to be taken, perfect
passive — to have been taken.

The ing-form is built up by adding the suffix -ing to the stem of
the verb, e.g. to take — taking (for spelling rules see "Verbs", § ll).

The ing-form also has analytical forms: perfect — having tak-
en, passive — being taken, perfect passive — having been taken.

The participle of regular verbs is formed by adding the suffix
- ed to the stem (for spelling rules and the pronunciation of the
suffix see "Verbs", § 5). The participle of irregular verbs may be
formed in different ways (see "Verbs", § 5 and Appendix).

The participle has only one form — it is invariable.

§ 164. In order to understand the nature of the verbals, it is
necessary to compare them with the finite forms of the verb and
bring out points of similarity points of difference between them.

As the infinitive and the ing-form have many features in com-
mon they will be compared with the finite forms together.

The participle, which differs from both these forms conside-
rably, will be compared with the finite forms separately.

§ 165. The infinitive and the ing-form have the same lexical
meaning as the finite forms of the corresponding verb.

But with regard to their grammatical categories the two ver-
bals correspond to the finite forms only partly.

1) The infinitive and the ing-form lack the forms of person
and number characteristic of the finite forms.

2) Mood can be expressed only by the finite forms.

It should be pointed out, however, that although the infinitive
has no special mood forms and cannot represent an action either

as a real fact or as something unreal, it may in some functions
express certain modal meanings — necessity, possibility, purpose:

e.g. a) necessity — I've got something dreadful to tell you.

b) possibility — I had nobody to talk to.

c) purpose — I'm going upstairs to pack my things.

The Perfect infinitive, in combination with some modal verbs,
may sometimes show that its action was not realized in the past.

e.g. They should have told him about it.

3) Like the finite forms, the infinitive and the ing-form have
active and passive forms, e.g. to take — to be taken, taking — be
ing taken.

Like the finite forms, the infinitive and the ing-form can ex-
press time, e.g. to take — to have taken, taking — having taken.

Yet, the two verbals differ considerably from finite verbs in
this respect. The finite forms generally express time absolutely.
i.e. they refer an action to the present, past or future (e.g. He
knows English. He knew English. He will know English). The ver-
bals express time relatively, i.e. in relation to the action of the
predicate verb in the sentence. The action expressed by the verbals
may be simultaneous with the action expressed by the predicate
verb (a), may precede (b) or follow it (c).¹

e.g. a) He seemed to know all about it.

Roger was at home working on his speech.

b) He seemed to have guessed the truth.

Having looked at his watch he closed the book and put it
on the shelf.

c) He was ready to assist them.

One afternoon, about half past five, when Thomas was
counting on working for an hour or two more, the tele-
phone rang.

Besides, the simple forms of the verbals themselves are capa-
ble of expressing all kinds of time relations. The various time re-
lations they express depend on the lexical character of the verb
and on the context.

¹ It is true that the finite forms may also express time relatively, but that occurs
only in certain sentence patterns.

The infinitive tends to express an action following that of the
predicate verb (a), but it may also denote an action simultaneous
with it (b). However, the simple form of the infinitive does not often
express an action that precedes the action of the predicate verb (c).

e.g. a) He felt a quick impulse to call the boy back.

b) She was admiring his ability to concentrate on any task.

c) Sylvia was glad to run across her old schoolmate.

The ing-form tends to express actions simultaneous with that
of the predicate verb (a). But it is also extensively used to express
priority (b) and, sometimes, an action following that of the predi-
cate verb (c).

e.g. a) This Saturday afternoon Henry, home from his office, sat
at his study table, drawing cats on the blotter, waiting
for his wife to come back from a lunch.

b) I remembered hearing my aunt telling me in my childhood

that great men never cared for flattery. ¹

c) She insisted on coming with me but I finally managed to

talk her out of it.

The time relations expressed by the passive forms are the same
as those of the corresponding active forms.

On the whole it should be noted that it is the simple form of
the verbals that is in extensive use in English. The analytical ing-
forms are infrequent, but they are commonly used with modal
verbs (in some of their meanings),
e.g. He must be happy now.
He must be sleeping.
He must have misunderstood you.
He must have been waiting for you.
The experiment must be finished already.
The experiment must have been carried out by now.

In other cases the continuous infinitive is generally used only
to emphasize the idea of duration, of process and to make the
statement more vivid and expressive. A simple infinitive is often
possible in the same sentence.

1 Here the action of hearing precedes the action of the predicate verb remembered,
the use of the perfect Ing-form is an exception.

e.g. It was pleasant to be driving the car again.

I'm not a man to be talking of what does not concern me.

It would be possible to use the simple forms to drive and to
talk in the above examples.

The perfect infinitive is more or less frequent after verbs of
mental perception, the verbs to seem, to happen, to appear and a
few others. It shows that the action took place before the action of
the predicate verb.

e.g. Their marriage was supposed to have been a very happy one.
A sense of timing is one of the things I seem to have learned
from Jimmy.

The Perfect Continuous infinitive is mainly found after the
same verbs as the Perfect infinitive. It shows that the action of
the infinitive began before the time indicated by the finite verb
and is still going on.

e.g. She was believed to have been feeling unwell for some time.
They seemed to have been getting on a bit better.

The forms of the two verbals are summed up in the following
tables:

The Infinitive

	Active	Passive
Simple	to take	to be taken
Perfect	to have taken	to have been taken
Continuous	to be taking	—
Perfect Continuous	to have been taking	—

The ing-form

	Active	Passive
Simple	taking	being taken
Perfect	having taken	having been taken

§ 166. The infinitive and the ing-iorm, like the finite forms,
are always associated with a subject but the way their subject is
expressed differs greatly from that of the finite forms.

Since the finite forms have the function of the predicate in the
sentence, their subject is always the grammatical subject of the
sentence. But the subject of the verbals may be expressed differ-
ently.

In a number of functions the subject of the verbals is the
same as the subject of the sentence and, consequently, of the fi-
nite verb.

e.g. He struggled to find the first words of his story.

She wasn't used to being miserable without doing something
about it.

But in certain other functions the subject of the verbal is fre-
quently expressed by some secondary parts of the sentence.

e.g. He gave her permission to leave.

Seeing you there, by the door, made me remember what I

had to do.
For the most part she was silent, the effort of speaking was

too much for her.

Moreover, the subject of the infinitive and the ing-form may be
found in a neighbouring clause or even in a different sentence.

e.g. She told him what a wonderful place it was to take her to.

There was a vast useless stretch of time to fill. I occupied
my mind with the memories of my childhood.

Starting this relationship seems to me one of the better
things you've ever done, however it ends.

"You won't do the same thing again, will you?" "I can't ex-
plain, but having done it just once is enough."

In all the above cases the relation between the action of the
verbal and its subject becomes clear from the context as the sub-
ject is not expressed by any grammatical means.

Occasionally the subject of the verbal is not indicated at all —
it is not found either in the sentence itself or in a wider context.
In this case it is understood as any or every person or as an indefi-
nite number of unidentified persons.

e.g. Knowledge is not something to boast about.
Writing good prose is not easy.

Finally, a verbal may have a subject of its own, specially ex-
pressed in the sentence. The way the subject is expressed is differ-
ent in this case for the infinitive and for the ing-form.

The subject of the infinitive is expressed by a noun or an in-
definite pronoun in the common case or by a personal pronoun in
the objective case. It precedes the infinitive and the whole con-
struction is introduced by the preposition for.
e.g. I'm not going to make a spectacle of myself for people to talk

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