How to Identify an Infinitive?
One of the questions he’s struggling with is:
“She went to the park to relax after a long day.”
He’s not sure if to relax is the infinitive or if it’s something else.
I really want him to understand this concept because it keeps popping up in his exercises.
Hello! Great question!
Salim is correct about what infinitives are, but I can understand that they can be tricky to spot especially as there are two of the same word 'to' in the sentence namely, 'to the park' and 'to relax'.
The phrase 'to the park' is indicating direction so the infinitive isn't there.
The phrase 'to relax' has got the base form of the verb 'relax' in it, and so he is correct that the infinitive is 'relax'. Another way to make sure he has identified it correctly, is to ask himself, 'Is the phrase 'to relax' acting as a verb?' - if the answer is no, as in this case ('to relax' is acting as a noun'), then he can be sure he has identified the infinitive correctly.
Let's look at one more example: "I want to get new shoes".
At first glance, the verb of the sentence might seem to be 'get', but actually it is 'want'. That is because, the infinitive 'to get' isn't functioning as a verb but rather as a noun - 'I' is the object doing the action 'want' to the subject 'to get'.
I hope that this helps Salim, and all the best going forward.
