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
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
Hello anng1909
If this sentence is describing something that already happened, then 'manage' should be in the past simple and I'd probably also put 'ending up' into the past simple as well ('ended up'). Some kind of conjunction after the comma would also improve the sentence in my opinion.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Risa warysha
The first one is correct and the second one is not -- the structure is 'be' or 'become' + 'the first (noun phrase optional here) to do something'.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Amy18295,
In the first sentence 'to give to his wife' is an infinitive of purpose. It explains why the man bought the flowers and has the same meaning as 'in order to'. It has an adverbial function in the sentence.
In your second sentence, the infinitive acts as a post-modifier to the noun 'opportunity'. As it completes the meaning of 'opportunity', creating one concept, it is a complement.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Amy18295
'to' can be part of an infinitive (e.g. 'to realise' or 'to be realised'), but in 'on the way to', 'to' is a preposition. When there is a verb after a preposition, it is always a gerund ('-ing' form), which is why this sentence has '... its way to being realised'.
There are other similar cases of this, for example 'She got used to living in Taipei' or 'I look forward to seeing you'.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Deven shukla,
I'm afraid 'you to have met' is not a correct form with any of those verbs. You can use the -ing form:
'Report' can also be followed by the -ing form, but since it describes a particular action and not a feeling or awareness, we would be unlikely to use it in the present simple:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Deven shukla
No, I'm afraid that's not correct. In 'admit to something', 'to' is a preposition -- this is why the -ing form is used after it, i.e. why 'she admitted to having stolen the money' is correct and 'she admitted to have stolen the money' is not.
The other structure that Murphy mentions is an alternative structure that means the same thing.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi GokaydinBariss,
After a superlative adjective or ordinals (first, second, third etc) we can use the to infinitive form in place of a relative clause:
Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon.
Neil Armstrong was the first man who walked on the moon.
Note that the to infinitive is a non-finite form, which means it has no time reference of its own. In the example above, it refers to the past because the context of the sentence is past time (...Armstrong was...). However, if the sentence refers to future time, the the to infinitive form will have that time reference. For example:
The next person on the moon will be the 24th human to walk there.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi agie
No, I'm afraid not. It is possible to use a perfect infinitive ('to have seen') instead of the simple infinitive. If you said 'I was happy to have seen her', this puts emphasis on the fact that your seeing her came before you were happy (the simple infinitive refers to an action that happened at the same time instead of earlier). In most cases, this kind of emphasis or precision isn't necessary, so we just say 'to see her'.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Hamdy Ali,
If I understand what you want to say, it should be 'Which ball will you lend me?' This is the question you could ask a person who has a ball and who is going to let you use their ball.
If it's you who is letting another person use the ball, the question would be 'Which ball do you want to borrow?' or something similar.
Hope this helps.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Lal,
They mean the same thing in many contexts, though people sometimes use form or the other to communicate a subtle difference. We often use the first one (with to+infinitive) to talk about a preference or habit, whereas we use the second one to speak more about the experience itself.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Bombom,
The second infinitive in this sentence is an infinitive of purpose (listed on this page), which is an infinitive used to describe the reason for an earlier action. You could replace to make with in order to make here and the meaning would be the same.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Widescreen,
The sentence with the infinitive of purpose communicates the idea of staying up late with that purpose. The other sentence (with the -ing form) just describes what you did last night, without the idea of purpose -- maybe you were just bored, for example, or maybe you had to watch it before class today.
In some contexts, this distinction might not important, but the subtle difference is there.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Andrew international,
You can find the answer to this in our grammar section with a little search. It's very helpful to us if you can first try to find the answer yourself before posting questions as it enables us to focus on those questions which do not already have an answer on our pages. This page is on an entirely different topic (to + infinitive); the relevant page for your topic, with the information you require, is here.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team