Level: beginner
Verbs with to-infinitives
We use the to-infinitive after certain verbs (verbs followed by to-infinitive), particularly verbs of thinking and feeling:
| choose decide expect forget |
hate hope intend learn |
like love mean plan |
prefer remember want would like/love |
They decided to start a business together.
Remember to turn the lights off.
and verbs of saying:
| agree | promise | refuse | threaten |
We agreed to meet at the cinema.
Promise to call me every day.
Some verbs are followed by a direct object and then the to-infinitive:
| advise ask encourage expect |
intend invite order persuade |
remind tell want warn |
would like/love would prefer |
He encouraged his friends to vote for him.
Remind me to give Julia a call.
- Verbs with to-infinitive 1
- Verbs with to-infinitive 2
Infinitive of purpose
We also use the to-infinitive to express purpose (to answer why?):
He bought some flowers to give to his wife.
He locked the door to keep everyone out.
We can also express purpose with in order to and in order not to:
We started our journey early in order to avoid the traffic.
They spoke quietly in order not to wake the children.
or so as to and so as not to:
We started our journey early so as to avoid the traffic.
They spoke quietly so as not to wake the children.
- Infinitive of purpose 1
- Infinitive of purpose 2
Level: intermediate
Adjectives with to-infinitives
We use the to-infinitive after certain adjectives:
| able unable anxious |
due eager keen |
likely unlikely ready |
prepared willing unwilling |
Unfortunately, I was unable to work for over a week.
I'm really tired. I'm ready to go to bed.
Sometimes the to-infinitive gives a reason for the adjective:
| amazed delighted disappointed |
glad happy pleased |
proud relieved sad |
sorry surprised unhappy |
We were happy to come to the end of our journey.
(= We were happy because we had come to the end of our journey.)
John was surprised to see me.
(= He was surprised because he saw me.)
We often use it + be followed by an adjective to give opinions:
| clever difficult easy |
foolish hard kind |
nice possible impossible |
right wrong silly |
It's easy to play the piano, but it's very difficult to play well.
He spoke so quickly that it was impossible to understand him.
We use the to-infinitive with these adjectives to give opinions about people:
| clever foolish |
kind nice |
right wrong |
silly |
She was right to complain about that hotel.
You were clever to find the answer so quickly.
We use the preposition for to show who these adjectives refer to:
| difficult | easy | hard | possible | impossible |
It was difficult for us to hear what she was saying.
It is easy for you to criticise other people.
With the other adjectives, we use the preposition of:
It's kind of you to help.
It would be silly of him to spend all his money.
- Adjectives with to-infinitive 1
- Adjectives with to-infinitive 2
Level: advanced
Nouns with to-infinitives
We use the to-infinitive as a postmodifier (see noun phrases) after abstract nouns like:
| ability attempt chance |
desire failure need |
opportunity refusal wish |
They gave him an opportunity to escape.
He was annoyed by her refusal to answer.
I have no desire to be rich.
There is no need to shout.
We often use the to-infinitive as a postmodifier after indefinite pronouns:
When I am travelling I always take something to read.
I was all alone. I had no one to talk to.
There is hardly anything to do in most of these small towns.
- Nouns with to-infinitive 1
- Nouns with to-infinitive 2
Hi SonuKumar,
To bank with (a particular bank) means to do banking activities (e.g. opening or closing an account, transferring money). So, Good people to bank with means (We are) good people for you to do your banking business with.
Best wishes,
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi SonuKumar,
It's an interesting phrase! Good people refers to the bank, and to grow with refers to you, the reader or customer. We can paraphrase it like this: (We are) good people (for you) to grow with.
Best wishes,
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Anatoly,
This looks like a newspaper headline. One of the features of headlines or titles is that words are often left out. In this case, I understand the full sentence to be 'The government is to announce new measures'.
In this sort of construction, the 'to'-infinitive has a future meaning. It's often used to speak about official plans and is typically used in a formal style.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Samin,
The past perfect is used when we want to describe an action which happened before another relevant action in the past. That means that when we use the past perfect there must be another past time action (using past simple or continuous) to act as a point of reference.
Your first sentence is correct: the past perfect action (had decided) occurs before the past simple action (wanted) ended.
Your second sentence is not correct without some other context - an action to provide a point of reference in the past simple or continuous. That's not to say it couldn't be correct. It is possible to use two or more past perfect verbs in one sentence provided there is another action to act as the point of reference. However, in your sentence this is missing.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello again Reemtb,
Yes, you can use other link verbs in sentences like this one.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Kim Hui-jeong,
With respect to your first question, I'm afraid I'm not exactly sure what you're asking here. The only modal verb here ('may') is in the last sentence, and here it 'behaves' as with any other modal, i.e. the verb after it is a base form. The infinitive after the other verbs is one of multiple possible collocations after those verbs. Perhaps they are all similar in some sort of classification, but I'm afraid we don't present grammar using such classifications on our site.
Some of the sentences in B and C sound a little odd to me (e.g. 'I'm eager for that suit'), and I'm not sure I wouldn't say that those phrases beginning with 'for' mean 'in support of' or 'in favour of'. I'd encourage you to study the example sentences in a good dictionary to see the different ways these words are used.
If you have any other questions, could you please make them a bit shorter and focused on just one thing? It would help us answer your comments more efficiently. Thanks in advance for your understanding.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Reemtb,
I can't be sure about the writer's intention, but I guess that the writer added the comma because the sentence is quite long (19 words). The comma helps to break it into smaller groups of words that make sense, which makes it easier to read and understand.
There's no grammatical reason for putting a comma there, and many writers wouldn't.
Best wishes,
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Reemtb,
No, in this sentence it's not a preposition. It's the to that comes before an infinitive verb. It's used because it follows the verb need (... need to be ...). The verb need isn't listed on the page above, but it belongs in the first group, verbs of thinking and feeling.
About inversion, it's only needed if the sentence structure requires it (e.g. if it's a question).
Best wishes,
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi clearbright25,
Do you mean something like this?
If the infinitive phrase is the subject of a sentence, it must be a noun. Only a noun or a pronoun can be the subject of a sentence. By doing this, we can avoid mentioning any person or other subject who is doing the action (since the sentence already has a subject, which is the action itself). So, we might use this structure if we want to focus the sentence on the action itself, without mentioning anyone doing the action.
Have I understood your question correctly?
Best wishes,
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Nagwa Ragab Elsakhawy,
To is actually two different words. One is to that comes before an infinitive verb. The other is to as a preposition.
To before an infinitive verb
This always has an infinitive verb after it, never a gerund. See the page above for examples of this.
To as a preposition
Some words require the preposition to. This needs to have an -ing form after it. Some examples:
In these examples, to is a dependent preposition. It is linked to looking forward and close. So, to answer your question, yes! It is possible if to is a preposition.
Does that make sense?
Best wishes,
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Kim Hui-jeong,
A 'to' infinitive is commonly used after many adjectives, including 'willing' and 'hesitant'.
In the sentence about the bomb, 'be going' + infinitive expresses a prediction or plan.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello DesKal,
This looks like a newspaper headline. Words are often omitted from headlines to save space. In this case, I expect the full sentence is 'Greece is to put sanctions on Turkey'. In formal speaking and writing, 'be' + infinitive can be used to express official planned actions (such as those carried out by a government).
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Luke warm
2 is the full form, but very often people omit 'to be' and use just 1. There is no difference in meaning.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Luke warm
Re: 1, the verb 'claim' is often followed by a noun or a phrase beginning with a 'to' infinitive. 'to be' is not adjectival here. The same is true of 'learn' in sentence 4.
I'm afraid that sentences 2 and 3 are grammatically incorrect. If you put 'is' before 'to be' in 3, then the phrase 'to be aware ...' is a nominal (noun-like) complement of the verb 'is'.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello amanrihana,
There are some verbs which are followed by to + infinitive and others which are followed by -ing.
I'm afriad there's no way to tell what any particular verb is followed by – you just have to memorise the patters.
Fortunately, we have pages on these to help you:
Verbs followed by the infinitive
Verbs followed by the '-ing' form
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi xandrsx,
To report your earlier activities in this way, the normal form is to use the past simple without a subject, as you do in the second version (B). It's possible to use some nouns as well (Team Briefing).
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Magnus
In most situations, the expressions would effectively mean the same thing, though they have a slightly different focus. 1 suggests that he takes the advice and actively accepts himself, whereas 2 is less specific and focuses more on the result; it could be, for example, that he resisted accepting himself for a long time, but then finally did so in the end.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Patnala akshay,
It is possible to use the infinitive after certain prepositions, but the preposition must have an object (noun or pronoun) before the infinitive. For example:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello MandyM,
The structure here is 'be the first person to do something' and it is a quite common stylistic choice in biographical or historical texts. The meaning is the same as the simpler 'be the first person who did something'.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Amy18295,
We're happy to answer specific questions in the comments sections of our pages but we can't provide long explanations of multiple structures, I'm afraid!
Some of the words you mention are quantifiers, so a good place to start would be our section on those:
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar-reference/quantifiers
You can also use the search function at the top of the page to find pages which reference the words you are interested in.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Goktug123
'to inspire' is an infinitive of purpose here. The 'to' also goes with 'bring' and 'shade'.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Goktug123
'to ensure' is an infinitive that describes the purpose of the material deposited on the outside of the piping component. This material will be machined, and this machining will ensure that the rings fit (as far as I can tell).
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team