Hey, guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this advanced grammar lesson
on "Active and Passive Infinitives". Now, before this lesson, I really recommend checking
out the previous lesson that I did on the functions of infinitives, just so you're already
familiar with how they work in a sentence, what verbs they can follow, and everything
like that. So, today, we're going to look at active infinitives in which the subject
is doing an action plus an infinitive, and we're also going to look at passive infinitives
where you are receiving the action. Okay?
So, first of all, let's look at the active simple, which is the most basic infinitive
use. And again, an infinitive is "to" plus a base verb. So: "She plans to invite them."
Here, "to invite". After "plan", we always use an infinitive. There's nothing special
going on here. It's just a present, simple sentence.
"Mike's afraid to make mistakes." We know that many adjectives, such as "afraid" can
And here we have: "Bermuda is a nice place to spend your vacation." Okay? So, this is
basically the simple use of an infinitive. There's certain verbs that are followed by
infinitives, there are many adjectives that are followed by infinitives, there are many
noun phrases which are also followed by infinitives. And this all plays into the rest of this lesson
So, here, we have the active past. So if you'd like to talk about an action that a subject
did in the past and you have to use an infinitive, the structure you use is: "to have" plus the
past participle. So, "to have" is actually the infinitive in this sentence. For example:
"You seem to have forgotten your jacket." So, I'm speaking to you in the present, maybe
I'm talking to you on the phone, and you know, you left my party two hours ago, and I say:
"Hey. It looks like you left your jacket." You seem to have forgotten, in the past, your
jacket. And again, "seem" is always followed by an infinitive, so you have to use an infinitive
after it. Past, "to have" plus p.p.
Okay, second sentence says: "I was happy to have finished everything early.", "I was happy
to have finished", so this, you're almost using a past perfect structure because what
you're doing is you're saying the first action is I finished, you know, I finished everything
early, whether it was studying, work, whatever it was. And then I was happy after that. Right?
So this is the first action, and this is the second action. You can say: "I was happy to
finish everything early." That's fine as well. But if you want to focus more on the order
of the action and this, you know, having been completed a little bit earlier, you can do:
"to have" plus the past participle.
All right, let's look at the passive forms. Now, in passive, the subject basically here...
Well, the object, sorry, becomes the focus and it receives the action. Okay? So, in the
passive simple, all you're doing is "to be" plus the past participle. So, the first sentence
says: "They expect to be invited." In general, they expect now to be invited, for example,
to a birthday party, or a wedding, or whatever the occasion is, they expect to be invited
by someone. Passive. They're receiving the action.
Second sentence: "We waited to be given instructions." So here, "to be given" is using a passive
simple structure of an infinitive. Now, what this means is, you know, we waited in class
to be given instructions from the teacher. The teacher is the one doing the action; we
are receiving the action. And as we know, based on the previous lesson on infinitives
and common verbs, "wait" is followed by an infinitive. So you wait to do something. Okay?
And here: "Prepare to be amazed!" This is an... Well, how can I say this? Yes, it's
an imperative. Right? So: "Prepare to be amazed!" whether this is a tagline for a movie or something
like that, they are telling you: "Prepare to be amazed" by something. So, you're going
to receive the action of amazement in this situation.
And finally, let's look at the passive past, which again, just like active and passive
gerunds, active and passive infinitives, this is the longest construction and the one that
is I would say the least frequently used by native English speakers. So: "I'm happy to
have been invited.", "To have been invited". The structure, "to have been", plus the past
participle. I'm happy now because I was invited in the past. So I'm happy. Again, happy is
an adjective. Many adjectives are followed by infinitives. I'm happy to have been invited
Okay, and finally: "It was an honour"... "It was an honour", in the past, "to have been
chosen for the award." I was chosen for the award in the past of the past, kind of like
a past perfect construction. "To have been chosen for the award." Okay.
Are you confused? Are you okay? Are you breathing? Okay. Okay. So, if, you know, if you're having
some trouble with this stuff, go back, watch my two lessons on "10 Common Verbs Followed
by Infinitives", watch my lesson on the functions and uses of infinitives which are linked to
this video. After, come back, take a deep breath, take the quiz below and let me know
how you did. And if you have any other suggestions for future videos, please also keep them in
comment section. Once again, this has been Alex. And I'll see you guys next time. Bye.