infinitival

Imagine you're building with LEGOs. Sometimes you have complete structures (like finished sentences!), but sometimes you just have individual bricks ready to be connected. In grammar, an infinitive is like one of those single LEGO bricks—it's the "to" form of a verb ("to run," "to eat," "to think"). "Infinitival" simply describes anything related to these infinitives.

You'll mostly encounter this word when talking about grammar itself, often in textbooks or language study. A phrase might be described as "infinitival" if it includes an infinitive, usually a form like "to swim" or "to eat." For example, the sentence "He likes *to swim*" contains an infinitival phrase ("to swim"). It's a technical term, so you won't use it in everyday conversation very often!

"Infinitival" is an adjective used mainly in linguistics and grammar to describe anything related to an infinitive or built around one. An infinitive is the basic form of a verb. In English, it often appears with "to"—like "to be," "to do," or "to learn"—though English also has bare infinitives such as "go" in "She made him go." This verb form is not marked for person the way "runs" is, and it does not show tense the way "ran" does.

While you won't typically use the word "infinitival" in casual conversation, understanding it is helpful if you study language. A linguist might analyze an "infinitival clause" (a clause built around an infinitive) or explain how infinitives work in different languages.

For example, consider these sentences:

"She wanted to travel* the world." ("To travel" is an infinitival phrase.) "It's important to practice* regularly." ("To practice" is another infinitival phrase.) "She made him leave* early." ("Leave" is a bare infinitive in an infinitival construction.)

The term "infinitival" helps grammarians describe and analyze these structures. It's a precise way to talk about how verbs appear in their basic, uninflected form inside sentences. Think of it as specialized vocabulary for people who look closely at how language works. So, while you might not say "That's an infinitival construction," you can understand what someone means if they do.