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81
They advised me to go on.
He decided to begin at once.
I forgot to tell you about the last incident.
He advised me at last how to settle the matter.
He could not decide whether to come at all.
I forgot how to do it.
b) Verbs that can take only a conjunctive infinitive phrase as their object: to know, to show, to wonder.
She did not know what to say.
I know well enough where to stop.
Will you show me how to do it?
The infinitive can have the function of object after certain adjectives (adjectivized participles), mostly used
as predicatives. Semantically and structurally these fall into two groups.
1. The most frequent adjectives of the first group are: anxious, apt, bound, careful, curious, determined,
difficult, eager, easy, entitled, fit, free, hard, impatient, inclined, interested, keen, liable, powerless, prepared,
quick, ready, reluctant, resolved, set, slow, worthy.
She’s determined to go on.
I am powerless to do anything.
He’s fully prepared to meet them any time they choose.
I was so impatient to start.
When used with these adjectives, the infinitive denotes actions either simultaneous with, or posterior to, the
states expressed by the predicates, and cannot therefore be used in perfect forms.
2. The most frequent adjectives (adjectivized participles) of the second group are: amused, annoyed,
astonished, delighted, distressed, frightened, furious, glad, grateful, happy, horrified, pleased, proud, puzzled,
relieved, scared, sorry, surprised, thankful, touched.
He was amused to hear it.
I’m delighted to see you again, darling.
She is proud to have grown such a son.
Mother was furious to see them together again.
These adjectives and participles express certain psychological states which are the result of the action
expressed by the infinitive object, so the latter therefore always denotes an action slightly preceding the state
expressed by the predicate, and can have both non-perfect and perfect forms. The non-perfect forms are used to
express immediate priority, that is, an action immediately preceding the state:
I’m glad to see you (I see you and that is why I am glad).
The perfect forms are used to show that there is a gap between the action and the resulting state.
I am glad to have seen you (I saw/have seen you and that is why I am glad).
3. After certain statives denoting psychological states, such as afraid, agog, ashamed:
He was ashamed to tell us this.
I’d be afraid to step inside a house that Rupert had designed all by himself.
In such cases the infinitive points out the source of the state expressed by the stative.
The infinitive as attribute
§ 108. The English infinitive functioning as an attribute is far more frequent than the Russian infinitive. This