Grammar: Active and Passive Infinitives

TRANSCRIPT

Hey, guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this advanced grammar lesson on "Active and Passive Infinitives". Now, before this lesson, I really recommend checking out the previous lesson that I did on the functions of infinitives, just so you're already familiar with how they work in a sentence, what verbs they can follow, and everything like that. So, today, we're going to look at active infinitives in which the subject is doing an action plus an infinitive, and we're also going to look at passive infinitives where you are receiving the action. Okay?

So, first of all, let's look at the active simple, which is the most basic infinitive use. And again, an infinitive is "to" plus a base verb. So: "She plans to invite them." Here, "to invite". After "plan", we always use an infinitive. There's nothing special going on here. It's just a present, simple sentence.

"Mike's afraid to make mistakes." We know that many adjectives, such as "afraid" can be followed by an infinitive.

And here we have: "Bermuda is a nice place to spend your vacation." Okay? So, this is basically the simple use of an infinitive. There's certain verbs that are followed by infinitives, there are many adjectives that are followed by infinitives, there are many noun phrases which are also followed by infinitives. And this all plays into the rest of this lesson as well.

So, here, we have the active past. So if you'd like to talk about an action that a subject did in the past and you have to use an infinitive, the structure you use is: "to have" plus the past participle. So, "to have" is actually the infinitive in this sentence. For example: "You seem to have forgotten your jacket." So, I'm speaking to you in the present, maybe I'm talking to you on the phone, and you know, you left my party two hours ago, and I say: "Hey. It looks like you left your jacket." You seem to have forgotten, in the past, your jacket. And again, "seem" is always followed by an infinitive, so you have to use an infinitive after it. Past, "to have" plus p.p.

Okay, second sentence says: "I was happy to have finished everything early.", "I was happy to have finished", so this, you're almost using a past perfect structure because what you're doing is you're saying the first action is I finished, you know, I finished everything early, whether it was studying, work, whatever it was. And then I was happy after that. Right? So this is the first action, and this is the second action. You can say: "I was happy to finish everything early." That's fine as well. But if you want to focus more on the order of the action and this, you know, having been completed a little bit earlier, you can do: "to have" plus the past participle.

All right, let's look at the passive forms. Now, in passive, the subject basically here... Well, the object, sorry, becomes the focus and it receives the action. Okay? So, in the passive simple, all you're doing is "to be" plus the past participle. So, the first sentence says: "They expect to be invited." In general, they expect now to be invited, for example, to a birthday party, or a wedding, or whatever the occasion is, they expect to be invited by someone. Passive. They're receiving the action.

Second sentence: "We waited to be given instructions." So here, "to be given" is using a passive simple structure of an infinitive. Now, what this means is, you know, we waited in class to be given instructions from the teacher. The teacher is the one doing the action; we are receiving the action. And as we know, based on the previous lesson on infinitives and common verbs, "wait" is followed by an infinitive. So you wait to do something. Okay?

And here: "Prepare to be amazed!" This is an... Well, how can I say this? Yes, it's an imperative. Right? So: "Prepare to be amazed!" whether this is a tagline for a movie or something like that, they are telling you: "Prepare to be amazed" by something. So, you're going to receive the action of amazement in this situation.

[TACOMA]

I am very happy to have found your channel.

[pippas_headphones]

I like how you include quizzes to make sure we understand the lesson. I was really struggling with this topic thank you so much your video really helped. ⛄️

[karanyepa]

I watch regularly to this channel with Alisha, Alex, Emma and Lucy for their teachings are very common.

[melikeyagl]

This channel is the best english lessons channel which i have seen ever. Thanks for all things

[muhammadrezakazemi]

You are one of my best teacher, Alex. A wise teacher.

[sanjibganguli]

Respected sir, being unarguably the finest mind in the field of English grammar, you are earnestly entreated with folded hands to enlighten me a tad bit as to which of the following options would be grammatically correct and which not -Question -He believed that I did it (Transform this Complex sentence into a Simple Sentence).My probable answers-(A)He believed me to do it.(B) He believed me to have done it (C)I was believed to have done it (D)He believed it to have been done by me (E)It was believed to have been done by me (F)He believed in my having done it.

[Sergey-mrbe]

It's 2021. Your lessons are still great! Thanks.

[pratibhabhandari]

After learning active and passive voice, it was nice knowing active infinitive and passive infinitive with their past form. Alex you are amazing. You have explained with clearification.

[yaseminatayolu]

my favourite teacher, thanks for all lesson and I must to learn every advanced grammer etc., please add more in youtube 💕

[carlosoruna]

Without a doubt this is one of the more interesting channels I've found. Thanks!!

[parthasarathidas]

Sir, I watched your channel for the first time. It's simply great! Now I am a fan of yours

[aslanb]

You are so the best teacher, I am from Chechnya thanks for your lessons

[algewatta]

All your lessons are very comprehensive.Thanks for the great work!.

[Xpk-zw]

I'm happy to have been recommended to this channel.

[remmasebigan]

Fantastic video! I wish you have the video of all tenses in active and passive forms. Good job!

[hsiyuanchang]

Hi Alex, after watched this video, I read an article just now, the first sentence in the article is "Getting to know one another is fundamental to starting any close relationship." Why not "to start" any close relationship but "to starting" ? Thanks, always appreciated your clips for improving my English skill. Linda from Taiwan.

[livvy]

Thanks a lot. I am from Germany... And on thuesday I have a examen.... So nice video

[reneesh]

Thanks, you have saved my time. Crystal clear.

[erkansamc]

That is a very big happiness to me to have watched this video.

[DmGrass]

Thanks, Alex! My suggested topic is "try + inf VS try +gerund"