infinitive
Example Sentences
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Sitaridou's analysis of the Romeyka infinitive is key.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 2, 2024
Correct French would not have used the infinitive “tuer,” but rather the past participle, ending with an “e” to agree with the female writer, Ms. Marchal.
From New York Times ● Nov. 20, 2021
His father had strong views about ending a sentence with a preposition and thought it a “heinous sin” to split an infinitive.
From Washington Post ● May 29, 2019
With the infinitive left unsplit – "The board voted to immediately approve the casino" – it can only be the approval.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 15, 2014
With the infinitive, use forbid: She was forbidden to go.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
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Do you go out of your way to avoid splitting infinitives, make gargling noises in the “10 items or less” queue, and have strong feelings about the word “whom”? Take a jersey: you’re team prescriptivist.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 7, 2017
English teachers were once satisfied if they could prevent their pupils from splitting infinitives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 29, 2015
This happens at all magazines, of course; at Slate, we recently stopped capitalizing, in headlines, to in infinitives: “To Be or Not To Be” became “To Be or Not to Be.”
From Slate ● Apr. 8, 2015
In that language, infinitives were an unsplittable single word: to split is dilaminare.
From Time ● Aug. 1, 2014
The unsplit versions sound more elegant to me, though I can’t be sure that my ears haven’t been contaminated by a habit of cravenly unsplitting infinitives to avoid spitballs from the Gotcha!
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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Vocabulary lists containing infinitive
Parts of Speech - Middle School
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Keystone Exams: English Composition Glossary
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Parts of Speech - High School
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