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  • 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

  • be followed by an infinitive.

  • 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

  • as well.

  • 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

  • in the past.

  • 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.

Hey, guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this advanced grammar lesson

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