Thanks Ashley, Now i will apply this to our sentence, please correct if i am wrong.
I am in present and talking about something in past. AND more importantly the "something" i am talking about has already begun (this comes from meaning of sentence as subject is of ancient times and person talking would not had been born at that time (did i use correct tense "had been born" ) --> "would not have been born" . So i will use perfect infinitive.

Now lets consider another sentence,
The company was not a non-profit but more likely to (begin/have begun) as a for-profit company.
In this case i am standing in present and talking about something in past BUT i do not know if company has already started or not

Ashley@VeritasPrep wrote:

Thanks Ashley, Now i will apply this to our sentence, please correct if i am wrong.
I am in present and talking about something in past. AND more importantly the "something" i am talking about has already begun (this comes from meaning of sentence as subject is of ancient times and person talking would not had been born at that time (did i use correct tense "had been born" ) --> "would not have been born" . So i will use perfect infinitive.

Now lets consider another sentence,
The company was not a non-profit but more likely to (begin/have begun) as a for-profit company.
In this case i am standing in present and talking about something in past BUT i do not know if company has already started or not

If you start off by saying "The company WAS not a non-profit, then it must be the case that the company has already started, right? Even if you said "IS not a non-profit," it would still be the case that the company, being already in existence, must have started. So in both those cases, you'd have to use the perfect infinitive if indeed you wanted to use the infinitive. "The company was/is not a non-profit, but is more likely to HAVE BEGUN as a for-profit company." If the company hadn't yet started ("The company WILL NOT BE a non-profit"), then you'd say (again, if you wanted to use an infinitive at all) "but is more likely to begin as a for-profit company."

Ashley@VeritasPrep wrote:

If the company hadn't yet started ("The company WILL NOT BE a non-profit"), then you'd say (again, if you wanted to use an infinitive at all) "but is more likely to begin as a for-profit company." [/color]

Quick question - In the above case, wouldn't we use hypothetical tense ? I am curious

voodoo_child wrote:Ashley:

Can you please help me to with "grammar surgery" on this sentence ? I am not able to understand it

"The badminton players have always loved to compete in their home gymnasium but look forward to the places that they have gone this season."

My inference - Badminton Players players love to compete on their home ground. But they are open to visit ONLY those places that they have gone in the past?

I am not able to understand the role of infinitive "to compete" on top of "have loved"? Does it mean that "to compete" precedes "present perfect" or "to compete" is contemporaneous with "present perfect"?
The second part of the sentence makes sense. Look forward is a present tense. "have gone" denotes the act of having visited places in the past.

Thanks
Voodoo

voodoo_child wrote:

Ashley@VeritasPrep wrote:

If the company hadn't yet started ("The company WILL NOT BE a non-profit"), then you'd say (again, if you wanted to use an infinitive at all) "but is more likely to begin as a for-profit company." [/color]

Quick question - In the above case, wouldn't we use hypothetical tense ? I am curious

I'm not super-sure if I understand the question, but I think I do... The part you've underlined is not intended to part of the sentence, but rather just to set up the scenario. In other words, here's what we'd say if the company had not yet started: "The company will not be a non-profit, but is more likely to begin as a for-profit enterprise."

Or do you mean would we avoid implying certainty at the beginning? Maybe say something more like "The company will likely not be a non-profit, but rather is likely to begin as a for-profit enterprise." ? We could do that.

voodoo_child wrote:Ashley:

Can you please help me to with "grammar surgery" on this sentence ? I am not able to understand it

"The badminton players have always loved to compete in their home gymnasium but look forward to the places that they have gone this season."

My inference - Badminton Players players love to compete on their home ground. But they are open to visit ONLY those places that they have gone in the past?

voodoo_child wrote: I am not able to understand the role of infinitive "to compete" on top of "have loved"? Does it mean that "to compete" precedes "present perfect" or "to compete" is contemporaneous with "present perfect"?
Thanks
Voodoo