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Non-finite verbs, are verb forms that do not show tense, person, or number. They include:
- Infinitives (e.g., to go, to see) - They often function as nouns or the base form of a verb
- Gerunds (e.g., going, seeing) - These act as nouns but are derived from verbs
- Participles (e.g., going, seen) - These can function as adjectives or part of verb tenses (like has gone)
Nonfinite verbs are used in constructions where there's no need to express tense directly. They help in creating sentences like "I want to go," where "to go" is nonfinite.
In the English language, a non-finite verb cannot perform action as the main verb of an independent clause. Non-finite verb forms in some other languages include converbs, gerundives and supines. The categories of mood, tense, and or voice may be absent from non-finite verb forms in some languages.
Because English lacks most inflectional morphology, the finite and the non-finite forms of a verb may appear the same in a given context.
Examples
In the following sentences, the non-finite verbs are emphasized, while the finite verbs are underlined.
- Verbs appear in almost all sentences.
- This sentence is illustrating finite and non-finite verbs.
- The dog will have to be trained well.
- Tom promised to try to do the work.
- The case has been intensively examined today.
- What did they want to have done about that?
- Someone tried to refuse to accept the offer.
- Coming downstairs, she saw the man running away.
- I am trying to get the tickets.
In the above sentences, been, examined and done are past participles, want, have, refuse, accept and get are infinitives, and coming, running and trying are present participles (for alternative terminology, see the sections below).
In languages like English that have little inflectional morphology, certain finite and non-finite forms of a given verb are often identical, e.g.
- a. They laugh a lot. - Finite verb (present tense) in bold
- b. They will laugh a lot. - Non-finite infinitive in bold
- a. Tom tried to help. - Finite verb (past tense) in bold
- b. Tom has tried to help. - Non-finite participle in bold
Despite the fact that the verbs in bold have the same outward appearance, the first in each pair is finite and the second is non-finite. To distinguish the finite and non-finite uses, one has to consider the environments in which they appear. Finite verbs in English usually appear as the leftmost verb in a verb catena. For details of verb inflection in English, see English verbs.
Categories
English
In English, a non-finite verb form may constitute:
- an infinitive verb, including the auxiliary verb have —
- within a verb phrase that is predicated by a modal verb (e.g., "I could have cried").
- within a to-infinitive phrase (e.g., "They seem to have moved").
- a participle.
- a gerund.
Each of the non-finite forms appears in a variety of environments.
Infinitive
The infinitive form of a verb is considered the canonical form listed in dictionaries. English infinitives appear in verb catenae if they are introduced by an auxiliary verb or by a certain limited class of main verbs. They are also often introduced by a main verb followed by the particle to (as illustrated in the examples below). Further, infinitives introduced by to can function as noun phrases or even as modifiers of nouns. The following table illustrates such environments:
Infinitive Introduced via auxiliary verb Introduced via causative verb Introduced via finite verb plus to Functioning as noun phrase Functioning as an adjective laugh Do not laugh! That made me laugh. I tried not to laugh. To laugh would have been unwise. the reason to laugh leave They may leave. We let them leave. They refused to leave. To leave was not an option. the thing to leave behind expand You should expand the explanation. We had them expand the explanation. We hope to expand the explanation. Our goal is to expand. the effort to expand
Participle
English participles can be divided along two lines: according to aspect (progressive vs. perfect/perfective) and voice (active vs. passive). The following table illustrates the distinctions:
Participle Progressive active participle Progressive passive participle Perfect active participle Perfect passive participle fix The guy is fixing my bike. I saw the guy fixing my bike. He has fixed my bike. My bike was fixed. open The flower was opening up. I saw the flower opening up. The flower has opened up. The flower has been opened up. support The news is supporting the point. She watched the news supporting the point. The news has supported the point. I understood the point supported by the news drive She is driving our car. I watched her driving our car. She has driven our car. Our car should be driven often.
Participles appear in a variety of environments. They can appear in periphrastic verb catenae, when they help form the main predicate of a clause, as is illustrated with the trees below. Also, they can appear essentially as an adjective modifying a noun. The form of a given perfect or passive participle is strongly influenced by the status of the verb at hand. The perfect and the passive participles of strong verbs in Germanic languages are irregular (e.g. driven) and must be learned for each verb. The perfect and passive participles of weak verbs, in contrast, are regular and are formed with the suffix -ed (e.g. fixed, supported, opened).
Gerund
A gerund is a verb form that appears in positions that are usually reserved for nouns. In English, a gerund has the same form as a progressive active participle and so ends in -ing. Gerunds typically appear as subject or object noun phrases or even as the object of a preposition:
Gerund Gerund as subject Gerund as object Gerund as object of a preposition solve Solving problems is satisfying. I like solving problems. No one is better at solving problems. jog Jogging is boring. He has started jogging. Before jogging, she stretches. eat Eating too much made me sick. She avoids eating too much. That prevents you from eating too much. investigate Investigating the facts won't hurt. We tried investigating the facts. After investigating the facts, we made a decision.
Often, distinguishing between a gerund and a progressive active participle is not easy in English, and there is no clear boundary between the two non-finite verb forms.
Auxiliary verb
Auxiliary verbs typically occur as finite verbs, but they also can occur as a participle (e.g. been, being, got, gotten, or getting) or, in the case of have, in a non-finite context as the complement to a modal verb relating to a perfect tense, e.g.:
Modal verb + have stative participle Perfect active participle Perfect passive participle could have The guest could have been a bore. The guest could have been boring us . The guest could have been bored. might have The dog might have been a surprise. The dog might have been surprising everyone . The dog might have been surprised. should have Our bid should have been a win. Our bid should have been winning support. Our bid should have been won . would have Their troops would have been a loss. Their troops would have been losing ground. Their troops would have been lost.
Native American languages
Some languages, including many Native American languages, form non-finite constructions by using nominalized verbs. Others do not have any non-finite verbs. Where most European and Asian languages use non-finite verbs, Native American languages tend to use ordinary verb forms.
Modern Greek
The non-finite verb forms in Modern Greek are identical to the third person of the dependent (or aorist subjunctive) and it is also called the aorist infinitive. It is used with the auxiliary verb έχω (to have) to form the perfect, the pluperfect and the future perfect tenses.
Theories of syntax
For an overview of dependency grammar structure in modern linguistic analysis, three example sentences are shown. The first sentence, The proposal has been intensively examined, is described as follows.
The three verbs together form a chain, or verb catena (in purple), which functions as the predicate of the sentence. The finite verb has is inflected for person and number, tense, and mood: third person singular, present tense, indicative. The non-finite verbs been and examined are, except for tense, neutral across such categories and are not inflected otherwise. The subject, proposal, is a dependent of the finite verb has, which is the root (highest word) in the verb catena. The non-finite verbs lack a subject dependent.
The second sentence shows the following dependency structure:
The verb catena (in purple) contains four verbs (three of which are non-finite) and the particle to, which introduces the infinitive have. Again, the one finite verb, did, is the root of the entire verb catena and the subject, they, is a dependent of the finite verb.
The third sentence has the following dependency structure:
Here the verb catena contains three main verbs so there are three separate predicates in the verb catena.
The three examples show distinctions between finite and non-finite verbs and the roles of these distinctions in sentence structure. For example, non-finite verbs can be auxiliary verbs or main verbs and they appear as infinitives, participles, gerunds etc.
See also
- Balancing and deranking
- Converb
- Gerundive
- Grammatical conjugation
- Infinitive
- Lexical categories, commonly known as parts of speech
- Participle
- Supine
- Verb phrase
- Verbal noun
References
- On their lack of inflection, see, for instance, Radford (1997:508f.), Tallerman (1998:68), Finch (2000:92f.), and Ylikoski (2003:186)
- E. Adelaide Hahn (1943). "Voice of Non-Finite Verb Forms in Latin and English". Transactions and proceedings of the American Philological Association. American Philological Association. 74: 269. doi:10.2307/283602. ISSN 0065-9711. Wikidata Q119529495.
- Concerning the fact that the left-most verb is the finite verb, see Tallerman (1998:65).
- Mithun, Marianne. 1999. The languages of Native America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sources
- Dodds, J. 2006. The ready reference handbook, 4th Edition. Pearson Education, Inc.. ISBN 0-321-33069-2
- Finch, G. 2000. Linguistic terms and concepts. New York: St. Martin's Press.
- Radford, A. 1997. Syntactic theory and the structure of English: A minimalist approach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
- Rozakis, L. 2003. The complete idiot's guide to grammar and style, 2nd Edition. Alpha. ISBN
- Tallerman, M. 1998. Understanding syntax. London: Arnold.
- Ylikoski, J. 2003. "Defining non-finites: action nominals, converbs and infinitives." SKY Journal of Linguistics 16: 185–237.
External links
- Owl Online Writing Lab Archive: Verbals: Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives
This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia s quality standards as misuse of bold and italics per MOS BOLD MOS ITALIC You can help The talk page may contain suggestions May 2023 Non finite verbs are verb forms that do not show tense person or number They include Infinitives e g to go to see They often function as nouns or the base form of a verb Gerunds e g going seeing These act as nouns but are derived from verbs Participles e g going seen These can function as adjectives or part of verb tenses like has gone Nonfinite verbs are used in constructions where there s no need to express tense directly They help in creating sentences like I want to go where to go is nonfinite In the English language a non finite verb cannot perform action as the main verb of an independent clause Non finite verb forms in some other languages include converbs gerundives and supines The categories of mood tense and or voice may be absent from non finite verb forms in some languages Because English lacks most inflectional morphology the finite and the non finite forms of a verb may appear the same in a given context ExamplesIn the following sentences the non finite verbs are emphasized while the finite verbs are underlined Verbs appear in almost all sentences This sentence is illustrating finite and non finite verbs The dog will have to be trained well Tom promised to try to do the work dd The case has been intensively examined today What did they want to have done about that Someone tried to refuse to accept the offer Coming downstairs she saw the man running away I am trying to get the tickets dd In the above sentences been examined and done are past participles want have refuse accept and get are infinitives and coming running and trying are present participles for alternative terminology see the sections below In languages like English that have little inflectional morphology certain finite and non finite forms of a given verb are often identical e g a They laugh a lot Finite verb present tense in bold b They will laugh a lot Non finite infinitive in bold dd a Tom tried to help Finite verb past tense in bold b Tom has tried to help Non finite participle in bold dd Despite the fact that the verbs in bold have the same outward appearance the first in each pair is finite and the second is non finite To distinguish the finite and non finite uses one has to consider the environments in which they appear Finite verbs in English usually appear as the leftmost verb in a verb catena For details of verb inflection in English see English verbs CategoriesEnglish In English a non finite verb form may constitute an infinitive verb including the auxiliary verb have within a verb phrase that is predicated by a modal verb e g I could have cried within a to infinitive phrase e g They seem to have moved a participle a gerund Each of the non finite forms appears in a variety of environments Infinitive The infinitive form of a verb is considered the canonical form listed in dictionaries English infinitives appear in verb catenae if they are introduced by an auxiliary verb or by a certain limited class of main verbs They are also often introduced by a main verb followed by the particle to as illustrated in the examples below Further infinitives introduced by to can function as noun phrases or even as modifiers of nouns The following table illustrates such environments Infinitive Introduced via auxiliary verb Introduced via causative verb Introduced via finite verb plus to Functioning as noun phrase Functioning as an adjectivelaugh Do not laugh That made me laugh I tried not to laugh To laugh would have been unwise the reason to laughleave They may leave We let them leave They refused to leave To leave was not an option the thing to leave behindexpand You should expand the explanation We had them expand the explanation We hope to expand the explanation Our goal is to expand the effort to expand dd dd Participle English participles can be divided along two lines according to aspect progressive vs perfect perfective and voice active vs passive The following table illustrates the distinctions Participle Progressive active participle Progressive passive participle Perfect active participle Perfect passive participlefix The guy is fixing my bike I saw the guy fixing my bike He has fixed my bike My bike was fixed open The flower was opening up I saw the flower opening up The flower has opened up The flower has been opened up support The news is supporting the point She watched the news supporting the point The news has supported the point I understood the point supported by the newsdrive She is driving our car I watched her driving our car She has driven our car Our car should be driven often dd dd Participles appear in a variety of environments They can appear in periphrastic verb catenae when they help form the main predicate of a clause as is illustrated with the trees below Also they can appear essentially as an adjective modifying a noun The form of a given perfect or passive participle is strongly influenced by the status of the verb at hand The perfect and the passive participles of strong verbs in Germanic languages are irregular e g driven and must be learned for each verb The perfect and passive participles of weak verbs in contrast are regular and are formed with the suffix ed e g fixed supported opened Gerund A gerund is a verb form that appears in positions that are usually reserved for nouns In English a gerund has the same form as a progressive active participle and so ends in ing Gerunds typically appear as subject or object noun phrases or even as the object of a preposition Gerund Gerund as subject Gerund as object Gerund as object of a prepositionsolve Solving problems is satisfying I like solving problems No one is better at solving problems jog Jogging is boring He has started jogging Before jogging she stretches eat Eating too much made me sick She avoids eating too much That prevents you from eating too much investigate Investigating the facts won t hurt We tried investigating the facts After investigating the facts we made a decision dd dd Often distinguishing between a gerund and a progressive active participle is not easy in English and there is no clear boundary between the two non finite verb forms Auxiliary verb Auxiliary verbs typically occur as finite verbs but they also can occur as a participle e g been being got gotten or getting or in the case of have in a non finite context as the complement to a modal verb relating to a perfect tense e g Modal verb have stative participle Perfect active participle Perfect passive participlecould have The guest could have been a bore The guest could have been boring us The guest could have been bored might have The dog might have been a surprise The dog might have been surprising everyone The dog might have been surprised should have Our bid should have been a win Our bid should have been winning support Our bid should have been won would have Their troops would have been a loss Their troops would have been losing ground Their troops would have been lost dd dd Native American languages Some languages including many Native American languages form non finite constructions by using nominalized verbs Others do not have any non finite verbs Where most European and Asian languages use non finite verbs Native American languages tend to use ordinary verb forms Modern Greek The non finite verb forms in Modern Greek are identical to the third person of the dependent or aorist subjunctive and it is also called the aorist infinitive It is used with the auxiliary verb exw to have to form the perfect the pluperfect and the future perfect tenses Theories of syntaxFor an overview of dependency grammar structure in modern linguistic analysis three example sentences are shown The first sentence The proposal has been intensively examined is described as follows dd The three verbs together form a chain or verb catena in purple which functions as the predicate of the sentence The finite verb has is inflected for person and number tense and mood third person singular present tense indicative The non finite verbs been and examined are except for tense neutral across such categories and are not inflected otherwise The subject proposal is a dependent of the finite verb has which is the root highest word in the verb catena The non finite verbs lack a subject dependent The second sentence shows the following dependency structure dd The verb catena in purple contains four verbs three of which are non finite and the particle to which introduces the infinitive have Again the one finite verb did is the root of the entire verb catena and the subject they is a dependent of the finite verb The third sentence has the following dependency structure dd Here the verb catena contains three main verbs so there are three separate predicates in the verb catena The three examples show distinctions between finite and non finite verbs and the roles of these distinctions in sentence structure For example non finite verbs can be auxiliary verbs or main verbs and they appear as infinitives participles gerunds etc See alsoBalancing and deranking Converb Gerundive Grammatical conjugation Infinitive Lexical categories commonly known as parts of speech Participle Supine Verb phrase Verbal nounReferencesOn their lack of inflection see for instance Radford 1997 508f Tallerman 1998 68 Finch 2000 92f and Ylikoski 2003 186 E Adelaide Hahn 1943 Voice of Non Finite Verb Forms in Latin and English Transactions and proceedings of the American Philological Association American Philological Association 74 269 doi 10 2307 283602 ISSN 0065 9711 Wikidata Q119529495 Concerning the fact that the left most verb is the finite verb see Tallerman 1998 65 Mithun Marianne 1999 The languages of Native America Cambridge Cambridge University Press SourcesDodds J 2006 The ready reference handbook 4th Edition Pearson Education Inc ISBN 0 321 33069 2 Finch G 2000 Linguistic terms and concepts New York St Martin s Press Radford A 1997 Syntactic theory and the structure of English A minimalist approach Cambridge UK Cambridge University Press Rozakis L 2003 The complete idiot s guide to grammar and style 2nd Edition Alpha ISBN Tallerman M 1998 Understanding syntax London Arnold Ylikoski J 2003 Defining non finites action nominals converbs and infinitives SKY Journal of Linguistics 16 185 237 External linksOwl Online Writing Lab Archive Verbals Gerunds Participles and Infinitives
