| The Infinitive
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| After certain verbs
| Example
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| advise, allow, ask, attempt, beg, decide, encourage, fail, expect, know, forbid, seem, tend, get, try, mean, tell, order, want, help, recommend, cause, warn; would like (hate, love, prefer); to be + adjective, etc.
| Terrorists wanted him to ignite a bomb.
I would hate to place reliance on the obsolete technology.
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| After some impersonal expressions
| Example
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| It is easy/ important/ useful/ necessary/ difficult/ unusual, etc.
| It is difficult for reaction to continue.
|
| Instead of longer phrases
| Example
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| The instrument needed to ionize = the instrument needed for ionization of.
| The instrument needed to ionize the substance at high temperatures will soon come into operation.
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| Functions in the sentence
| Example
|
| -As a subject
-As an adverbial modifier of purpose
-As an adverbial modifier of result
-As an attribute
-As parenthesis
| -Even to think of this mistake gave him torture.
-To understand the task he read it several times.
-He was clever enough to admit.
-She was the first to deal with the problem.
-To put it mildly, he lacked organizational skills.
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| Note: Because an infinitive is not a verb, you cannot add -s, -es, -ed, or -ing to the end.
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A) Put the verbs in brackets into the Infinitive:
1) They hope (deal) with the problem.
2) It’s important for scientists (popularize) science.
3) The researchers failed (emit) a pulse.
4) (be recognized) give scientists great pleasure.
5) It’s not reasonable for investigators (test) the experimental model now.
6) He decided (study) at university.
7) (repeat) the experiment before publishing the final report was a good idea!
8) The apparatus installed (analyze) the effects of radiation will soon come into operation.
| Verbs followed by the infinitive without to:
| Example
|
| watch, see, hear, notice, feel, observe; make, let; had better; would rather; must, can, could, should, may, might; why not.
| I’d rather minimize the possibility of an error.
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B) Insert to where necessary:
1) You’d better ……. (give) an example of this type of misconduct.
2) We let the students ……. (explain) exceptions to this general rule.
3) It’s hard …… (be) careful and don’t let anybody …… (see) you …… (re-check) the data.
4) We noticed the satellite ……. (fall down) on the Earth.
5) A student should …… (know) how …… (outline) the general plan of the work.
6) They were rude, …… (say) the least of it.
7) It is useless (discuss) these matters.
8) I’d rather (see) the case myself.
