Infinitive - Are they Verbs or not... - The Beat The GMAT Forum - Expert GMAT Help & MBA Admissions Advice

Infinitive - Are they Verbs or not...

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Tmoni26: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 29; Joined: Thu Aug 15, 2013 7:29 am; Thanked: 1 times

by Tmoni26 » Tue Jan 20, 2015 1:27 pm

Just a random question here,

If Infinitives are not classed as verbs, then should we just disregard them immediately (as verbs) when solving sentence correction questions?

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Tue Jan 20, 2015 1:27 pm

MartyMurray: Legendary Member; Posts: 2135; Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2014 9:26 amFollowed by: 140 members; Location: https://martymurraycoaching.com/; Thanked: 955 times; GMAT Score:800

by MartyMurray » Wed Jan 21, 2015 5:33 am

Tmoni26 wrote:Just a random question here,

If Infinitives are not classed as verbs, then should we just disregard them immediately (as verbs) when solving sentence correction questions?

While what you are asking is not all that clear, when working through GMAT SC questions, one does not have to consider subject verb agreement or correct use of tense when working with infinitives.

At the same time, employing a general policy of ignoring a certain type of construction will not work. Getting the correct answers to SC questions generally involves looking at the construction of the sentence as a whole and assessing how well all of the parts work together. So one needs to pay attention to all details, at least until one has determined that for reasons specific to the construction of a certain sentence certain details do not constitute decision points.

Marty Murray
Perfect Scoring Tutor With Over a Decade of Experience
MartyMurrayCoaching.com
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VivianKerr: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1035; Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:13 amFollowed by: 365 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 474 times

by VivianKerr » Sat Jan 24, 2015 9:23 pm

Hi there,

Yup, infinitives ARE verbs, so usually come up in sentences testing Verb Tenses (and occasionally Modification, Parallelism, and Comparisons).

Some nice posts that go into the nitty-gritty of how they are tested:

https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-grammar- ... 98669.html
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2014/the-infini ... orrection/

Check this OG question that tests infinitives:

The only way for growers to salvage frozen citrus is to process them quickly into juice concentrate before they rot when warmer weather returns.

(A) to process them quickly into juice concentrate before they rot when warmer weather returns

(B) if they are quickly processed into juice concentrate before warmer weather returns to rot them

(C) for them to be processed quickly into juice concentrate before the fruit rots when warmer weather returns

(D) if the fruit is quickly processed into juice concentrate before they rot when warmer weather returns

(E) to have it quickly processed into juice concentrate before warmer weather returns and rots the fruit

--

Notice the parallel infinitives "TO SALVAGE" and "TO HAVE" -- (B), (C), and (D) aren't parallel so they are quickly eliminated. (A) is eliminated because "citrus" is singular, so would need the singular pronoun "it." Definitely keep a look out for double-infinitives that lack parallelism! They can be fairly easy to spot and are "easy" GMAT points.

Vivian Kerr
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Former Kaplan and Grockit instructor, freelance GMAT content creator, now offering affordable, effective, Skype-tutoring for the GMAT at $150/hr. Contact: [email protected]

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ceilidh.erickson: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2095; Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 3:22 pmFollowed by: 247 members; Thanked: 1443 times

by ceilidh.erickson » Wed Feb 04, 2015 9:31 am

Infinitives are verbal forms, but unlike tensed verbs, they are not used with subjects. So you're right - they're not really verbs! In fact, they function as nouns or modifiers. For example:
noun: I like to dance. "to dance" is the object.
modifier: I went to dance class to learn the samba. Here, "to learn" is modifying why I went to dance class.

It's unclear what you mean by "we should disregard them," though. Every piece of an SC sentence is important. If your first step in analyzing a sentence is to identify the main subject and verb, then infinitives will almost never be a factor. But that doesn't mean they're not important!

Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

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DavidG@VeritasPrep: Legendary Member; Posts: 2663; Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 8:25 amFollowed by: 128 members; Location: Boston, MA; Thanked: 1153 times; GMAT Score:770

by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Wed Feb 04, 2015 9:44 am

And for anyone interested in seeing infinitives-as-modifiers in action, check out this GMATPrep SC:

Organized in 1966 by the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Breeding Bird Survey uses annual roadside counts along established routes for monitoring of population changes of as many as, or of more than 250 bird species, including 180 songbirds.

(A) for monitoring of population changes of as many as, or of
(B) to monitor population changes of as many, or
(C) to monitor changes in the populations of
(D) that monitors population changes of
(E) that monitors changes in populations of as many as, or

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