A nonfinite verb is any of several verb forms that are not finite verbs; that
is, they cannot serve as the root of an independent clause. Nonfinite verbs
found in English typically are infinitives, participles and gerunds.
Additional nonfinite forms found in some other languages include converbs,
gerundives and supines. Nonfinite verbs typically are not
inflected by grammatical tense; and they present little inflection for other
grammatical categories as well. Generally, they also lack a subject
dependent. One or more nonfinite verbs may be associated with a finite verb in
a finite clause, composing the elements of a verb catena, or verb chain.
Because English to a large extent lacks inflectional morphology, the finite and
nonfinite forms of a verb may appear the same in a given context. In such a case,
the environment surrounding the verb must be examined to determine whether it
is finite or nonfinite. Examples
The following sentences each contain one finite verb and multiple nonfinite
verbs: The proposal has been intensively
examined today. What did they want to have done about
that? Someone tried to refuse to accept the
offer. Coming downstairs, she saw the man
running away. I am trying to get the tickets.
In the above sentences, been, examined and done are past participles, want,
have, refuse, accept and get are infinitives, and coming, running and
trying are present participles. In languages like English that have
little inflectional morphology, certain finite and nonfinite forms of a given
verb are often identical, e.g. a. They laugh a lot. - Finite verb in
bold b. They will laugh a lot. - Nonfinite
infinitive in bold a. Tom tried to help. - Finite verb in
bold b. Tom has tried to help. - Nonfinite
participle in bold Despite the fact that the verbs in bold
have the same outward appearance, the first in each pair is finite and the
second is nonfinite. To distinguish the finite and nonfinite uses, one has to
consider the environments in which they appear. Finite verbs in English usually
appear as the leftmost verb in a verb catena. For details of verb inflection
in English, see English verbs. Types of nonfinite verbs
English has three kinds of nonfinite verbs:
infinitives, participles, and
gerunds Each of these nonfinite forms appears in
a variety of environments. = Infinitives =
The infinitive of a verb is considered the "base" form; it is the form that is
listed in dictionaries. Infinitives in English appear in verb catenae where
they are introduced by an auxiliary verb or by a certain limited class of main
verbs. They are also often introduced by a main verb followed by the particle to.
Further, infinitives introduced by to can function as noun phrases, or even as
modifiers of nouns. The following table illustrates these environments:
= Participles = Participles in English can be divided
along two lines: according to aspect and voice. The following table illustrates
these distinctions: Participles appear in a variety of
environments. They can appear in periphrastic verb catenae, in which case
they help form the main predicate of a clause, or they can appear essentially
as an adjective modifying a noun. The form of a given perfect or passive
participle is strongly influenced by the status of the verb at hand. The perfect
and passive participles of strong verbs in Germanic languages are irregular;
their form is idiosyncratic. The perfect and passive participles of weak verbs,
in contrast, are regular; they are formed with the suffix -ed.
= Gerunds = A gerund is a verb form that appears in
positions that are usually reserved for nouns. In English, a gerund has the same
form as a progressive active participle, ends in -ing. Gerunds typically appear
as subject or object noun phrases, or even as the object of a preposition:
Often distinguishing between a gerund and a progressive active participle is
not easy; the line between the two nonfinite verb forms is not clear.
= Nonfinite verbs in other languages = Some languages, including many Native
American languages, form nonfinite constructions using nominalized verbs.
Others do not have any nonfinite verbs. In places where most European or Asian
languages use nonfinite verbs, they use ordinary verb forms.
Nonfinite verb form in Modern Greek The nonfinite verb forms in Modern Greek
are identical to the third person of the dependent and it is also called the
aorist infinitive. It is used with the auxiliary verb έχω to form the perfect,
pluperfect, and future perfect tenses. Nonfinite verbs in theories of syntax
For an overview of dependency grammar structure in modern linguistic analysis,
three example sentences are shown. The first sentence, The proposal has been
intensively examined, is described as follows.
The three verbs together form a chain, or verb catena, which functions as the
predicate of the sentence. The finite verb has is inflected for person and
number, tense, and mood —here, respectively: third person singular,
present tense, indicative. The nonfinite verbs been and examined are, except for
tense, neutral across these categories and are not inflected otherwise. The
subject, proposal, is a dependent of the finite verb has, which is the root in
this verb catena. The nonfinite verbs lack a subject dependent.
The second sentence shows the following dependency structure:
The verb catena contains four verbs and the particle to, which introduces the
infinitive have. Again, the one finite verb, did, is the root of the entire
verb catena and the subject, they, is a dependent of the finite verb.
The third sentence has the following dependency structure:
Here the verb catena contains three main verbs, which means there are three
separate predicates in this one verb catena.
The three examples show distinctions between finite and nonfinite verbs and
the roles of these distinctions in sentence structure. For example,
nonfinite verbs can be auxiliary verbs or main verbs and they appear as
infinitives, participles, or gerunds, etc.
See also Balancing and deranking
Converb Gerundive
Grammatical conjugation Infinitive
Lexical category Participle
Supine Verb phrase
Verbal noun Notes
References External links
Owl Online Writing Lab: Verbals: Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives