Questions tagged [infinitive]
The infinitive tag has no usage guidance.
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What did the Romans consider the "basic" form of a verb?
Many of us are used to using the (active present) infinitive form of a verb as a "label" or "basic form" or "representative" of the verb.
By this I refer to uses like dictionary entries or grammatical ...
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Is "esse est percipi" grammatical, even with infinitives?
According to the Crash Course Philosophy video today, George Berkeley summarized his empirical philosophy with the phrase "esse est percipi", to be is to be perceived. However, it feels somewhat ...
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How do you show an infinitive for reason?
For instance, if you say, "I came here to eat," or "We want something good to eat," you are using the infinitive "to eat" to express reason or purpose. How do translate something like this in Latin?
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Infinitive main verb in Newton's Three Laws of Motion
Isaac Newton expressed his three laws of motion as follows:
Corpus omne perseverare in statu suo quiescendi vel movendi uniformiter in directum, nisi quatenus a viribus impressis cogitur statum illum ...
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Where did the passive infinitive come from?
The etymology of the present active infinitive seems well-documented. Proto-Italic had an infinitive-like suffix *-si, so *dōnā- + *-si = *dōnāsi > dōnāre by regular sound changes (s → z → r between ...
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1
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Third conjugation passive infinitive: why -i and not -eri?
The active infinitive is uniform (-re from -se by rhotacism) across the regular Latin conjugations, but the passive one is not: the third conjugation loses the consonant.
We have amare/amari, habere/...
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2
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Confusion regarding 'esse' + accusative
I am currently learning Latin from the Bloomsbury Latin to GCSE books. In one of the reading passages the following constructions are used:
"non cupio rex vester esse. dei signum mittent si me ...
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Contracted perfect and historical infinitive
The present infinitive is sometimes used as a predicate in a past tense sentence.
The use context is similar to praesens historicum.
My grammar gives two examples:
Nihil Galli respondere, sed in ...
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1
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Why is the infinitive used instead of a genitive gerund (e.g. "consilium ceperunt ex oppido profugere")?
I was wondering about the grammatical reason(s) whereby a(n expected) genitive gerund/gerundive is sometimes replaced by an infinitive. Here are some representative examples of this phenomenon:
...
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1
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What form is 'numerārī'?
In chapter X of Orberg's Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata there is this sentence: Piscēs numerārī nōn possunt.
From the context I would translate this as an infinitive. But the infinitive should be ...
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2
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"To be" and a commentator on Aquinas
Father David Burrell, a well-known philosopher and theologian who has written on Thomas Aquinas, has discussed Aquinas' view of God, or at least of what could or could not be properly said about God. ...
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Stacking many infinitives
Consider the sentence: Dixit se velle posse audere venire.
("He said that he wants to be able to dare to come.")
This has a stack of four infinitives.
In theory we might be able to stack as ...
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1
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The active and passive infinitives are said to be from locative and dative nouns, respectively: why?
According to this post, the active infinitive was formed as the locative of nouns based on verbal stems. Why was the locative used for the infinitive, rather than, say, the accusative?
The noun genos/...
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Jenney's Second Year Latin, Lesson 12, exercise E: Ut clauses and how to translate English infinitives
I'd like some clarification on the possible translations of "to see you." I'm teaching Jenney's Second-Year Latin (1990, Prentice-Hall edition).
In the introduction to Lesson 12 (page 138), the book ...
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What is the Sense and Syntax of this Sentence in Petrarch's De Ignorantia?
In his De Sui Ipsius et Multorum Ignorantia, Petrarch complains that some friends who came to visit him subsequently told other people that he was unlearned (indoctus, illiteratus, etc.).
He argues ...
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How to translate this line from Xenophon? (Const. Lac. 9.1)
I'm working on this line from Xenophon, and I'm having a little trouble with the second clause.
ἄξιον δὲ τοῦ Λυκούργου καὶ τόδε ἀγασθῆναι, τὸ κατεργάσασθαι ἐν τῇ πόλει αἱρετώτερον εἶναι τὸν καλὸν ...
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2
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How to make sense of this standalone infinitive? (Metamorphoses 1.601—603)
For starters, I haven't finished translating this short passage yet, so I would be grateful if you refrain from giving the full translation. (And if it's hard to answer the question without doing so, ...
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1
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Is spargier a valid passive present infintive of spargo?
I noticed that ignoro has the passive present infinitives ignōrārī, ignōrārier. This made me wonder if other verbs has the second -er version. The wiktionary page for spargo does not list a second one,...
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Fore or not Fore?
North & Hillard Ex. 230 includes the line: "By his advice the confederates bound themselves to resist to the death,".
This, translated, in the Answer Book, as: "euis autem consilio socii se ...
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Use of Infinitive
Moreland has this adapted paragraph from Cicero's De Senectute. I'm slightly confused about the use of infinitive over here.
Moriens Cyrus maior haec dicit: "nolite arbitrari, o mihi carissimi
...
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How to resolve ambiguities with the infinitive
In the Vulgata, Titus 3:8 reads as follows:
Fidelis sermo est: et de his volo te confirmare: ut curent bonis
operibus præesse qui credunt Deo. Hæc sunt bona, et utilia hominibus.
In particular, ...
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1
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In an indirect statement, could there be two infinitives in the dependent clause for different purposes?
The sentence is "The sailor realized that he himself ought to give the money back to the girl."
My translation is "Nauta intellexit se debere dare pecuniam retro puellae."
(If there are any errors ...
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1
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Is 'volo' ever used with a future infinitive?
One can certainly use volo with an infinitive to express a wish:
Volo amari!
I want to be loved!
A future sense is often implied, as one would probably interpret that I'm not loved now if I wish ...
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Meaning of “Videre Sed Non Videri”
What is the meaning of “Videre Sed Non Videri”?
I already search on Google on pages like:
mymemory.translated
But results are confusing me, and my knowledge on Latin language is zero.
Thanks in ...
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Nominativus cum infinitivo
Can somebody please tell me if my translation for the sentence: "It seems that the slave is carrying a letter." is correct?
Videtur servus epistulam portare.
videtur - 3rd person present ...
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Can the articular infinitive be a dative of means? (Greek)
I am translating this sentence from English to classical Greek.
There is great danger that the students may harm themselves by not taking care of themselves. Let us decide how to help them.
My ...
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1
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Flee or chase, the meaning of fugere?
In reading Ritchie's Fabulae Faciles, I find the following passage:
Dum tamen ea geruntur, Argonautae nōn intermissō remigandī labōre mox ē
cōnspectū hostium auferēbantur, neque prius fugere ...
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0
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Can There Be Multiple Subjects in a Clause Where One Is the Subject of Another Clause
I want to construct "I like learning, but learning from a book only can be boring": "Discere amo, sed discere a libro ipso sit taediosum."
I was wondering if you can omit "...
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On the Etymology of the Future Active Infinitive
In Syntax of Plautus, W. M. Lindsay writes:
But the earliest form of the Future Infinitive Active, which still survives in some lines of Plautus and has probably been removed by scribes from more, ...
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Are the present infinitive of the active periphrastic and the future active infinitive of the verb the same concept?
On p270 of Keller's Learn to Read Latin
The present infinitive of the active periphrastic is also used as the future active infinitive of the verb. Thus, for example, rectirus, -a, -um esse may be ...
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Is expiari an alternate form of the infinitive expiare?
I take the following sentence from Fabules Faciles:
...hōc enim ūnō modō tantum scelus expiārī potuit
as "...only in this way could he atone for such a great crime." literally, "...
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Is an infinitive as a noun neuter in gender?
On p37 in Keller's Learn to Read Latin:
The infinitive is an abstract verbal noun in the neuter singular. It
is indeclinable; that is, although it is a noun, it does not have
case endings, and it ...
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1
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Infinitive as an instruction
In Columella, there is a line that goes:
deinde cum computruerit tamdiu pati donec ad pristinum modum perveniat.
("Then, when it has putrified, you must leave it alone until it returns to its ...
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1
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Usage of perfect infinitive ("Res mihi nondum comperta est, itaque sufficiat leviter admonuisse alios de hac quarta causa")
In Kepler's Strena, seu de Nive Sexangula we read:
Res mihi nondum comperta est, itaque sufficiat leviter admonuisse alios de hac quarta causa.
which I translate as: This thing is not yet ...
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2
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Using genitive and infinitive to describe characteristics
Answering this question, I recalled a somewhat rare construction used to express that an action is characteristic of someone.
Pekkanen's Ars Grammatica (§77.1) gives two examples:
Cuiusvis hominis ...
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2
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Infinitival impersonal passives
The impersonal passive is a familiar construction:
Pugnatur. "There is fighting / people are fighting / etc."
Pugnatum est. "There was fighting / etc."
Here a finite passive verb is being used ...
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1
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Primum non culpare?
I was thinking of how you could alter the medical dictum Primum non nocere to mean "First, CYA." My first thought: Primum non culpare, which I would literally translate as "First, don't get blamed."
...
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2
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Sentence with gerund or gerundive and infinitive
I'm trying to translate the following:
[...] quem autem valorem aliter nisi appropinquando cognoscere non datur.
Which comes from Euler (De Serie Lambertina/e). But I'm having trouble sorting out ...
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The usage of present passive infinitive
In Augustine confessions we read:
"quid tibi sum ipse, ut amari te iubeas a me et, nisi faciam, irascaris mihi et mineris ingentes miserias?" (book I, cap. V)
I can't understand the usage of the ...
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Infinitive ' habere ' usage in this sentence
How to understand a meaning of the infinitive 'habere' here, is it here as a subject (The Infinitive as a Subject, Gildersleeve & Lodge, page 275)?
Nam cum posse existere potentia sit, sequitur ...
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In regards to "Est" and "Errare humanum est"
I am new to Latin and very rough because I am teaching it to myself after so many years. I was working on a sentence that I thought was simple enough but became confused. The translation of "...
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Is there a passive infinitive?
If I say something can be changed, for example, how would I say that in Latin? Would I say id X potest, or is there some other construction for this? The context doesn't really matter, but it's for my ...
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Gerundial arguments selected by verbs taking Genitive: e.g., "Memento moriendi"? "Me paenitet vivendi"?
As a follow-up of two previous questions on Latin grammar, I was wondering if examples like Memento moriendi (cf. Memento mori) and Me paenitet vivendi (cf. Me paenitet vivere) are also attested.
...
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What do I do when "ait" fails me?
In a separate answer, I was trying to use ait in an English sentence:
If the Lex Julia can ait its wording…
…but I ran into a problem. Even ignoring my bastard mixture of English and Latin, "can ...
- 69k
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0
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When did the infinitive in -ier fall out of use?
At one point, the Latin passive infinitive was formed with a suffix -(r)ier, as in agier "to be driven", amārier "to be loved".
Allen and Greenough call this an "ancient form[…] found chiefly in ...
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1
answer
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Why does the contraction rule ε+εν -> ειν apply to the formation of λύειν?
In their discussions of the formation of the infinitive, both Pharr and White remark on the contraction of -εεν to -ειν, but I don't understand why this would apply to most of the examples that come ...
user3597
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2
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On the formation of perfect passive infinitives
I Think I understand why the passive infinitive of " amo " is not " esse amatus" : "being loved" is not perfect ( without any play on words).
So we need something else ...
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1
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Future infinitive active in indirect discourse
The future infinitive active can be used as an active periphrastic, but within an indirect discourse, of which the subject is an accusative and the main verb an infinitive, can it also have a future ...
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Resource request: formation of the Greek infinitive, including Homeric Greek
As suggested by cmw, I'm spinning off this resource request from an earlier question that was long and unwieldy.
Can anyone suggest resources that do a good job of giving a complete presentation of ...
user3597
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1
answer
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How to make sense of this articular phrase in Aur 1.17.3? (Greek)
I learned from my textbook (From Alpha to Omega, Groton) about articular infinitives, in which a definite article is coupled with an infinitive, to form a phrase of many uses. At first glance, that ...
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