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Inflected forms of verbs. [edit] A typical English verb may have five different inflected forms: The base form or plain form (go, write, climb), which has several uses—as an infinitive, imperative, present subjunctive, and present indicative except in the third-person singular. The -s form (goes, writes, climbs), used as the present ...
Nonfinite verb. A nonfinite verb, in contrast to a finite verb, is a form of a verb that lacks inflection (conjugation) for number or person. In the English language, a nonfinite verb cannot perform action as the main verb of an independent clause. [1] In English, nonfinite verb forms include infinitives, participles and gerunds.
By contrast, the term gerund has been used in the grammatical description of other languages to label verbal nouns used in a wide range of syntactic contexts and with a full range of clause elements. Thus, English grammar uses gerund to mean an -ing form used in non-finite clauses such as playing on computers. This is not a normal use for a ...
A few verbs are regular in their spoken forms, but have irregular spelling. The irregular weak verbs (being in normal use) can consequently be grouped as follows: Verbs with vowel shortening: creep, flee, hear, keep, leap, shoe (when shod is used), sleep, sweep and weep. (Of these, creep, flee, leap, sleep and weep derive from verbs that were ...
bite – bit – bitten. Strong, class 1. bleed – bled – bled. Weak, class 1, with vowel shortening and coalescence of dentals. blend – blent/blended – blent/blended. Weak with devoiced ending (or regular) bless – blessed/blest – blessed/blest. Weak, regular with alternative (archaic) spelling. blow – blew – blown.
English grammar is the set of structural rules of the English language.This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and whole texts.. This article describes a generalized, present-day Standard English – a form of speech and writing used in public discourse, including broadcasting, education, entertainment, government, and news, over a range of registers, from formal to ...
Infinitive. Infinitive (abbreviated INF) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The name is derived from Late Latin [modus] infinitivus, a derivative of infinitus meaning "unlimited".
A split infinitive is a grammatical construction in which an adverb or adverbial phrase separates the "to" and "infinitive" constituents of what was traditionally called the "full infinitive", but is more commonly known in modern linguistics as the to-infinitive (e.g., to go). In the history of English language aesthetics, the split infinitive ...