Bare Infinitive
Full Infinitives and Bare Infinitives Are Never Main Verbs
- I wanted to swim in the river. (This is an example of a full infinitive. The tense is shown by "wanted," which is the main verb (finite verb) in the sentence.)
- I could swim in the river. (This is an example of a bare infinitive. The tense is shown by "could," which is the main verb.)
Bare Infinitives Function Only As Verbs
- I like to dance. (In this example, "to dance" is functioning as a noun. You could replace "to dance" with "dancing.")
- This is your chance to dance. (Here, "to dance" is functioning as an adjective. It describes "your chance.")
- Janet went to the hall to dance. (Here, "to dance" is functioning as an adverb. It tells us why Janet went to the hall.)
This page was written by Craig Shrives.
You might also like.
Help us improve.
Was something wrong?
please tell usUse #gm to find us quicker.
share copyCreate a QR code.
teachers' zone
Multi-choice Test
This test is printable and sendable
expand tofull page
Site Navigation
- A-Z of grammatical terms
- A-Z confused words
- punctuation lessons
- FAQs by writers
- common writing errors
- curriculum for beginners
- spelling and vocabulary lessons
- role-play scenarios
- vocabulary topics
- awkward plurals
- parts-of-speech lists
- creative-writing techniques
- Latin terms in English
- tattoo fails
- Arabic script
- categorized games and tests
- key-stage tests
- library of grammar videos
- pdf download library
- categorized sitemap
- common English verbs
- collective nouns for animals
- sayings and proverbs
- common irregular verbs
- interesting words