4.3 The Infinitive Form
The INFINITIVE form of a verb is the form which follows to:
to ask |
to protect |
This form is indistinguishable from the base form. Indeed, many people cite this form when they identify a verb, as in "This is the verb to be", although to is not part of the verb.
Infinitives with to are referred to specifically as TO-INFINITIVES, in order to distinguish them from BARE INFINITIVES, in which to is absent:
To-infinitive |
Bare infinitive |
Help me to open the gate |
Help me open the gate |
4.4 More Verb Forms: -ing and -ed
So far we have looked at three verb forms: the present form, the past form, and the infinitive/base form. Verbs have two further forms which we will look at now.
[1] The old lady is writing a play
[2] The film was produced in Hollywood
The verb form writing in [1] is known as the -ing form, or the -ING PARTICIPLE form. In [2], the verb form produced is called the -ed form, or -ED PARTICIPLE form.
Many so-called -ed participle forms do not end in -ed at all:
The film was written by John Brown
The film was bought by a British company
The film was made in Hollywood
All of these forms are called -ed participle forms, despite their various endings. The term "-ed participle form" is simply a cover term for all of these forms.
The -ed participle form should not be confused with the -ed inflection which is used to indicate the past tense of many verbs.
We have now looked at all five verb forms. By way of summary, let us bring them together and see how they look for different verbs. For convenience, we will illustrate only the third person singular forms (the forms which agree with he/she/it) of each verb. Notice that some verbs have irregular past forms and -ed forms.
Base/Infinitive Form |
Present Tense Form |
Past Tense Form |
-ing Form |
-ed Form |
cook |
he cooks |
he cooked |
he is cooking |
he has cooked |
walk |
he walks |
he walked |
he is walking |
he has walked |
take |
he takes |
he took |
he is taking |
he has taken |
bring |
he brings |
he brought |
he is bringing |
he has brought |
be |
he is |
he was |
he is being |
he has been |