what is an infinitive
what is an infinitive
5 Answers
An infinitive is a verb form that is not limited to a particular person (grammatically speaking) or tense. And, since it is not limited, it is—in a way—infinite. In English, infinitives are presented as "to" plus the verb: to drive, to run, to make, etc.
A finite verb form is limited to its subject and to its tense. For instance, for the verb "to be," the third person singular present form is "is": he is, she is, it is. "Is" can only indicate present tense and can only indicate third person singular.
This is even more important in Spanish, which has a clearly different verb form for almost every person and tense (and, for which reason, Spanish usually omits subject pronouns). The infinitive verb forms always end in -ar, -er, or -ir: trabajar (to work), comer (to eat), conducir (to drive), etc.
Another way to look at it: the infinitive is the base form of the verb. All other forms will derive from it.
Note: infinitives are only found in languages that bother to conjugate verbs, which not all languages do.
Hi,
The infinitive form of a verb is the verb that ends in AR , ER or IR.
I hope this helps 
An infinitive is the unconjugated verb form there are ir-abrir( to open)r, er- correr(to run), and ar- bailar(to dance) verbs. Verbs can be use in the infinitive form following a conjugated verb. Or be conjugated to mean I open, yo abro, tú abres, you open and so on
An infinitive is sometimes called the dictionary form, where, as the name suggests, it is the form you will find in dictionaries.
It is so called because it is not restricted by times like the future or past tenses, nor mood like the subjunctive, nor aspect (whether something is on-going, finished or took place only once in the past).
For the purpose of learning Spanish, Lovely Love hits the nail on its head.
An infinitive has been explained to me as a verb in its purest form. It's not been changed yet into tenses.
For example: hablar is the purest form for the verb meaning - to speak.
Hablo is the present tense meaning - I speak or I talk.
