Infinitives without TO

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vikram4689: Legendary Member; Posts: 1325; Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:24 amFollowed by: 14 members; Thanked: 105 times

by vikram4689 » Tue Apr 20, 2010 5:37 pm

Hi,
I was reading English Grammer by Wren and Martin. In Infinitives section it was mentioned that it is not necessary that all infinitives are followed by TO. i.e. word TO is not an essential part of infinitive. To illustrate this point authors have given some examples :-

I will not let you go
Make him stand
You dare not do it
I saw him do it
I heard him cry

I am not able to understand the meaning of last 2 sentences. Can anyone help me .....

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Verbal Reasoning | Tue Apr 20, 2010 5:37 pm

nitin0505: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 2; Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2010 7:00 am; Thanked: 1 times

by nitin0505 » Wed Apr 21, 2010 6:07 am

vikram4689 wrote:Hi,
I was reading English Grammer by Wren and Martin. In Infinitives section it was mentioned that it is not necessary that all infinitives are followed by TO. i.e. word TO is not an essential part of infinitive. To illustrate this point authors have given some examples :-

I will not let you go
Make him stand
You dare not do it
I saw him do it
I heard him cry

I am not able to understand the meaning of last 2 sentences. Can anyone help me .....

Yep, that's correct. If you are asking for the meaning of the last 2 sentences, here is my attempt:
* He did something (say, he jumped over the wall). (perhaps) I happened to walk past while he was doing it. And I saw him do it (jumping over the wall)
* He was crying at some point of time. (perhaps) I was next door and I heard him.

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vikram4689: Legendary Member; Posts: 1325; Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 6:24 amFollowed by: 14 members; Thanked: 105 times

by vikram4689 » Wed Apr 21, 2010 12:24 pm

Hi Nitin,

In the cases that you have mentioned , would not answers be in Past Continuous form:-

> I saw him doing it
> I heard him crying

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Bharat: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 70; Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2007 11:43 pm; Thanked: 8 times

by Bharat » Wed May 19, 2010 9:26 pm

Hi Vikram,
The below sentences are in Past Indefinite tense (not in Past Continuous).

> I saw him doing it.
> I heard him crying

Here the verbs are saw/heard (second forms).
DOING/CRYING are Past Participles (first form + ing + not the main/aux verb). Participles function pretty much the same as Adjectives,i.e., qualifying something.

I hope that helps.

Regards,
Bharat

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