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# infinitive

«infinitive» in Mova's school dictionary: **The basic form of a verb, often with to in front: to run…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (an infinitive, infinitives); adjective (infinitive)

### meaning for a pupil

(grammar) The basic form of a verb, often with to in front: to run, to be, to eat; the bare infinitive has no to: run, be, eat. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/infinitive/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

In grammar lessons in English and French (manger, aller); dictionaries list verbs by the infinitive. Phrases: to-infinitive, split infinitive, bare infinitive.

### examples

- To swim is an infinitive. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/infinitive/#x1)
- I want to go home: to go is an infinitive. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/infinitive/#x2)
- In French, aller is the infinitive meaning to go. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/infinitive/#x3)
- A split infinitive puts a word between to and the verb: to boldly go. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/infinitive/#x4)
- Can and must are followed by the bare infinitive: I can swim. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/infinitive/#x5)
- Look up a verb in the dictionary by its infinitive. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/infinitive/#x6)

### note

Plural infinitives. Split infinitives are now accepted by most writers; old rules said avoid them. Say in-FIN-i-tiv.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «infinitive» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/infinitive/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.