Activities: “Infinitive verbs in English: What are they and when are they used?”
Activity 1: Spot the infinitives
Find and click on all of the infinitive verbs in the story below. Make sure to mark both the infinitives with to and the bare infinitives!
(Remember, the word to does not always mark an infinitive, and not all uses of the root form are bare infinitives!)
Yesterday, we took a trip to the pumpkin farm. It will be Halloween next week, so we wanted to pick out some pumpkins to turn into Jack-o’-lanterns. It was a beautiful day to be outside, and we were really happy to have the day off work so that we could go.
My friend Maggie and I always go to “Nanna’s Pumpkins” near the highway. In addition to the pumpkins, they have lots of things to do at the pumpkin farm. We didn’t have time to try the corn maze or to go on a hayride, but we could still take pictures with the sunflowers and it was really fun to look at the giant pumpkins.
When we tried to pay for our pumpkins, I realized that I had forgotten to bring my wallet, but luckily Maggie had her credit card, and she paid for both of us. It was really kind of her to do!
Activity 2: Complex Infinitives
What is the infinitive form of the underlined verbs in each of the sentences below. For example:
ex: We are washing dishes.→ to be washing
Sandy goes to the pool three days a week.
Timothy is a professor.
Millie will pass back your papers.
The dog is running in circles.
The smoke alarm went off because my pasta was burning.
The criminals were caught robbing the bank.
A coat had been forgotten on the subway.
My goldfish has lived a good life.
Recently, my car has been making a very odd noise.
The meeting has been being interrupted over-and-over, since we started!
