He Non-Finite forms of the verb (the Verbals)

1.

THE NON-FINITE FORMS
OF THE VERB (THE VERBALS)

2.

The Non-Finite forms (the Verbals)
• The verbals are forms of the verb, but they have
peculiarities of their own. Like the finite forms of
the verb the verbals have tense, voice and aspect
forms, can be modified by adverbs and can take
direct objects. But they cannot express person,
number or mood and their syntactical functions
are different from those of the finite forms.

3.

The Infinitive & the Gerund
• The Infinitive and the Gerund have many
features in common. The Infinitive and the
Gerund are the forms of the verb, which have the
syntactical characteristics of the noun.

4.

The Participle
• The Participle differs from both the Infinitive
and the Gerund considerably. The Participle is
the form of the verb, which has the syntactical
characteristics of the adjective or the adverb.

5.

Forms of the Infinitive
Active
Passive
Simple
to take
to be taken
Continuous
to be taking
-//-//-//-//-//-//-//-//-
Perfect
to have taken
to have been taken
Perfect Continuous
to have been taking
-//-//-//-//-//-//-//-//-

6.

Subject
a) to do smth is/was/will be (means/meant) …
• To study well is our duty.
• To know all about English is one thing; to know
English is quite another.
• To visit English speaking countries is her aim.

7.

Subject
b) It is necessary (important, nice, good, bad,
easy, difficult, pleasant, unpleasant, dangerous,
etc.) to do smth …
• It’s nice to have seen you.
• It’s good to have been met at the station.

8.

Subject
c) It takes (took, will take) smb to do smth …
• It takes me twenty minutes to get to the
University.
• It will probably take much time to do this task.

9.

Simple Verbal Predicate
• I don’t know where he lives.
• I will tell him the news if I see him.

10.

Simple Nominal Predicate
a) It is used in interrogative (affirmative and negative)
sentences beginning with why and implying a suggestion
used in the conversation. We always find an infinitive
without to here. In interrogative-affirmative sentences the
implication is that there is no need to perform the action.
• Me - marry him! Never!
• Why let him sleep so long?
b) In interrogative-negative sentences the implication is that
there is nothing to prevent one from performing the action.
• Why not go away?

11.

Compound Verbal Modal Predicate
a) modal predicate after modal verbs: must, can,
may, etc.
• I can tell you nothing at all about him.
• She ought to have told me before.

12.

Compound Verbal Phasal Predicate
a) phasal (aspect) predicate after phasal (aspect)
verbs: to start, to begin, to commence, to go on,
to continue, to keep on, to finish, to stop, etc.
• Now I begin to understand you.
• Then she came to realize what it all meant.
• They continued to whisper.

13.

Predicative
a) a part of compound nominal predicate after the
link-verbs: to be, to mean, etc.
• To know English is to speak English.
• The students’ duty is to study well.

14.

A Part of a Predicative
• The book is easy to read.
• He is difficult to deal with.
• She is pleasant to look at.
• Granny is difficult to please.

15.

Object
a) after the verbs: to want, wish, prefer, like,
expect, learn, refuse, try, decide, allow, mean,
order, promise, remember, regret, hope,
attempt, plan, agree, forget, intend, etc.
• I’ll try to help you.
• I remember to have seen him once.
• I want to know everything about him.

16.

Object
b) after the verbs: to be glad, to be sure, to be
sorry, to be eager, to be anxious, to be able, to be
surprised, to be astonished, to be puzzled, to be
frightened, to be scared, to be thankful, to be
grateful, to be proud, to be touched, etc.
• He was sorry to be late.
• I am glad to have met you.
• I’m distressed to have done you harm.

17.

Object
c) with verbs: to know, to show, to wonder, which
can take only a conjunctive Infinitive phrase,
called the "wh-phrase".
• She didn’t know what to say.
• I know well enough where to stop.
• I couldn’t decide whether to speak or not.

18.

Attribute
a) after a noun:
• I’ve no time to waste.
• This is the picture to be exhibited.

19.

Attribute
b) after a pronoun:
• It was she to behave like that.
• It’s always he to speak first.
• Have you got anything to tell me?

20.

Attribute
c) after a numeral:
• Jane was the first to come.
• He was the second to speak.

21.

Attribute
d) after a substantivized adjective (the last,
enough, more, much, little, a lot, etc.):
• He was the last to write the exposition.
• He knows much to inform her.

22.

NB!
• Note 1: The Passive Infinitive is seldom used in
the attributive function. So we should say "it is a
book to read" and not "to be read". Exceptions:
there is nothing to be done — nothing to do;
there is something to be seen, to be said —
something to see, to say.

23.

Adverbial Modifier
a) of purpose (in order, so as (not) to):
• I went out to buy the morning paper.
• She hurried so as not to give him time for
reflection.

24.

Adverbial Modifier
b) of result (too, enough, so...as):
• He is too clever to do it.
• The problem is difficult enough to solve.
• You are so stupid as to lend him your car.

25.

Adverbial Modifier
c) of comparison (than, as if, as though):
• I’d prefer to see it myself than to hear it
somewhere.
• He looked at them as though to be still in doubt.
• He watched her face as if to explain it.

26.

Adverbial Modifier
d) of exception (denotes the only possible action that
can be performed under the circumstances. It’s
proceeded by ‘except’ or ‘but’ used in negative or
interrogative sentences after: nothing could be done,
he could do nothing, he could not help, etc. The
infinitive is used without to.):
• I had nothing to do but wait.
• There is nothing to be done about it except tell you
the truth.
• What could he do but smile?

27.

Adverbial Modifier
e) of condition:
• To touch it, one would believe that it was the
best of furs.
• I’ll thank you to take your hands off me.

28.

Adverbial Modifier
f) of time:
• His brother lived to be ninety-four.
• Go away! I shudder to see you here.

29.

Adverbial Modifier
g) of subsequent events: (shows that other actions
take place at the same time as the action of the
predicate)
• He arrived at three o’clock to hear that Fleur had
gone out with the car at ten.
• He hurried to the house only to find it empty.

30.

Adverbial Modifier
h) of attendant circumstances: (shows that other
actions take place after the action of the
predicate)
• He left the house never to come back.
• I am sorry to have raised your expectations only
to disappoint you.

31.

Adverbial Modifier
i) of cause or motivation:
• What an idiot I was not to have thought of it
before!
• She was silly to come here.
• They’re out of their mind to have sent you here!

32.

Parenthesis
a) to begin with, to tell the truth, to put it mildly,
needless to say, so to speak, strange to say, to
cut a long story short, to say nothing of..., to say
the least of it, to be more exact, etc.
• To tell the truth, you have been lying all the
time.
• To begin with, he is not the man to trust.

33.

Complex Object
V + smb +(to) do
to want, to like, to wish, would like, would
hate, would prefer, etc.
to see, to watch, to notice, to feel, etc.
to expect, to think, to believe, to suppose, to
find, to consider, to mean, etc.
to allow, to enable, to cause to force, to ask,
etc.
to make, to let, to have, etc.
to get
They wanted this problem to be discussed at the seminar.
We want him to speak about his experiment at the conference.
We heard him deliver a speech.
We saw our colleague carry out the experiment.
We expect them to be involved in the work.
We know the subject to have been thoroughly investigated in the past.
We find this value to be accurate enough.
The use of the new method allowed us to obtain more accurate data.
On no account will they force me to do that again.
The discovery made the scientists think that the old concept was wrong.
They let me do this experiment.
I won’t have them speak to you like that!
I got my parents to help me with the project.

34.

Complex Subject
smb/smth + be (done)/do + to do
In the Passive Voice: to see, to believe, to suppose, to expect, to
think, to know, to report, to say, etc.
In the Active Voice: to seem, to appear, to prove, to happen, to
turn out, etc.
In the Active Voice: to be (un)likely, to be sure, to be certain, etc.
The method is reported to give good results.
This approach is expected to give better results.
He is known to have outlined this problem in one of the
papers.
He is said to be traveling round the globe.
They seem to be working at this problem now.
He appears to have graduated from Moscow University.
He proved to be interested in the same problem.
He doesn’t seem to observe the rule.
This question is likely to be discussed tomorrow.
They are unlikely to have followed our advice.
He is sure to keep us informed about the further events.