infinitive

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The position of the infinitive is the important thing.

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Definitions (13)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun A verb form that functions as a substantive while retaining certain verbal characteristics, such as modification by adverbs, and that in English may be preceded by to, as in To go willingly is to show strength or We want him to work harder, or may also occur without to, as in She had them read the letter or We may finish today. See Usage Note at split infinitive.

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Examples (50)

  • ** An infinitive is the basic form of the verb with the preposition to: to speak, to write, to eat, to sleep, to defecate are all infinitives. —  Blog updates
  • I thought the infinitive was more common, but confess ignorance as to the context. —  Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en]
  • Word has somehow got around that the split infinitive is always wrong. —  Kevin Stilley Dot Com
  • Not content merely to split an infinitive, the corporation even invited Dr Gopeesingh to step outside to settle the matter: that is, the advertisement called on him to repeat his statement outside the House. —  TrinidadExpress Today's News
  • The split infinitive, the preposition at the end of a sentence, and none as a plural all involve prohibitions that even strict prescriptivists abandoned decades ago, and which survive only through brain-dead pedagogy in the schools. —  Blog updates
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Middle English infinitif, of an infinitive, from Old French, from Late Latin īnfīnītīvus, unlimited, indefinite, infinitive, from Latin īnfīnītus, infinite; see infinite.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French infinitif = Provencal infinitiu, enfenitiu = Spanish Portuguese Italian infinitivo = Dutch infinitivus = G. Danish Swedish infinitiv, from Late Latin infinitivus, unlimited, indefinite (modus infinitivus or simply infinitivus, the infinitive mode), from Latin infinitus, unlimited: see infinite.
 

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/ɪnˈfɪnɪtɪv/
by American Heritage

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