Tell me more ×
English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 1 down vote favorite

Here ,I have some question in which how to use infinitive and rewrite them:

1)Let us pray.
2)I heard her sing.
3)Men must work and women must weep.

Can any one say about it?

share|improve this question
2  
None of these are actually infinitives: can you clarify your question? – TimLymington Jun 18 '12 at 10:56
4  
They are what are known as 'bare infinitives', that is, they are not preceded by the particle 'to'. This is a big subject, occupying several pages in the grammar books. I agree that OP needs to ask something more specific. – Barrie England Jun 18 '12 at 10:59
2  
Did you read en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bare_infinitive#Bare ? – user16269 Jun 18 '12 at 11:01
It is a very vague question, and difficult to fathom what you want to know. We could say a lot about infinitives. Try reading through this page. It will say pretty much everything that needs to be said. – Roaring Fish Jun 18 '12 at 15:39

closed as not a real question by waiwai933♦ Jun 26 '12 at 6:40

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

1 Answer

up vote 0 down vote

As @David Wallace said, these are Bare infinitives: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bare_infinitive#Bare

1) the "pray" in "Let us pray" is an example of a bare infinitive ("pray") used with the verb of permission ("let"). See bullet #3 under Bare Infinitive.

2) the "sing" in "I heard her sing" is an example of the bare infinitive ("sing") indicating an action taken by the main verb's ("heard") direct object ("her"). See bullet #2 under Bare Infinitive.

3) the "Men must work and women must weep" is an example of bare infinitives ("work"/"weep") used as the main verb after a modal auxiliary verb ("must"). See bullet #1 under Bare Infinitive.

share|improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.