The use of the Objective-with-the-Infinitive Construction

The Objective-with-the-Infinitive Construction

The For-to-Infinitive construction

The Subjective-with-the-infinitive construction.

The Objective-with-the-infinitive construction

The Objective with the Infinitive is a construction in which the infinitive is in predicate relation to a noun in the common case or a pronoun in the objective case. In the sentence this construction has the function of a complex object.

In translation the Objective-with-the-Infinitive Construction into Ukrainian we nearly always use a subordinate clause.

He’s a wonderful teacher and I’ve never seen him lose his temper or get angry about anything.

However, sometimes the sentence containing the Objective-with-the Infinitive Construction is rendered by a simple sentence.

… the bombing at night made the old walls shake to their foundations.

1. The Objective-with-the-Infinitive Construction is used after verbs denoting sense perception, such as to hear, to see, to watch, to feel, to observe, to notice, etc.

I haven’t heard anyone call me.

I saw Brown enter the room.

I felt the blood rush into my cheeks, and then leave them again.

After verbs of sense perception only the Indefinite Infinitive Active is used. If the meaning is passive we use Participle II.

I saw the fire slowly conquered.

2. The Objective-with-the-Infinitive Construction is used after verbs denoting mental activity, such as to know, to think, to consider, to believe, to suppose, to expect, to imagine, to find, to feel, to trust.

After verbs of mental activity in the Objective-with-the-Infinitive Construction the verb to be is generally used. The use of this construction after most verbs of mental activity is more characteristic of literary than of colloquial style.

I know you to be the most honest, spotless creature that ever lived.

I believe him to have no conscience at all.

If you suppose that boy to be friendless, you deceive yourself.

Everybody expected her to marry Pete.

3. The Objective-with-the-Infinitive Construction is used after verbs of declaring: to pronounce, to declare, to report.

The surgeon pronounced the wound to be a slight one.

She declared him to be the most disobedient child in existence.

4. The Objective-with-the-Infinitive Construction is used after verbs denoting wish and intention: to want, to wish, to desire, to mean, to intend, to choose.

I want you to come and dine with me.

I particularly wished those books to be returned to night.

She desired me to follow her upstairs.

I did not mean you to learn the poem by heart.

He intended me to go with him to India.

I don’t choose you to go by yourself to an hotel.

5. The Objective-with-the-Infinitive Construction is used after verbs and expressions denoting feeling and emotion: to like, to dislike, to love, to hate, cannot bear.

I dislike you to talk like that.

I hate him to be flogged.

I can not bear you to speak of that.

6. The Objective-with-the-Infinitive Construction is used after verbs denoting order and permission: to order, to allow, to suffer, to hate.

Mr. Merdle ordered his carriage to be ready early in the morning.

She … had never allowed the name of John Gordon to pass her lips.

7.The Objective-with-the-infinitive Construction is used after verbs denoting compulsion: To make (in the meaning of - змушувати), to cause (in the meaning of “змусити”, ”розпорядитися”), to get (in the meaning of “добитися чогось”), to have (in the meaning of “змусити”)

Light steps in the gravel made him turn his head.

The noise caused her to awake.

She caused a telegram to be sent to him.

1. Though the infinitive as a rule is not used with verbs requiring prepositions, the Objective with the Infinitive is widely used with the preposition for. Occasionally it occurs with the prepositions on and upon.

I rely on you to come in time.

I rely upon you to go over to the opposition.

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