Note. In such sentences as the fifth,—“I should wish to examine the plans again before deciding,”—wish expresses volition. Hence “I would wish” is incorrect, for it expresses volition twice and can mean only “I desire to wish.” On the same principle we say “I should prefer,” “I should be glad,” etc. (see § 236).
Sometimes either I would or I should may be used, but with a difference in meaning. Thus, in the eighth example, “I should help you” might be substituted for “I would help you.” This change, however, makes the remark sound less cordial and sympathetic; for I should (unlike I would) gives no hint of the speaker’s desire to be of service.
II. Should I (or we)? in questions:—
Note. Would I? is confined, for the most part, to questions in which one repeats the words or thought of another. Thus,—“You would give five dollars for a ticket.” “Would I? No, I wouldn’t!” In this use it is chiefly colloquial.
III. Should you? and Would you? in questions:—
The choice between should and would in these sentences corresponds to the form expected in the answer (§ 238).
299. The chief occasions on which Would you? is correct are:—(1) in asking advice in a matter of doubt, and (2) in asking consent or permission.
In examples 6 and 7 in § 298, III, the speaker asks advice; in 8, 9, and 10, he asks consent or permission.
300. Note that the proper forms are I should like, Should I like? and Should you like?
Note. Would is very common in these phrases, even among writers of repute, but it is still contrary to the best usage. The reason for should is the same as in I should wish (§ 298, I, note).
301. I’d and we’d are contractions of I would and we would. Hence they can never stand for I should and we should (§ 235).
302. Should in the second and third persons may be used in simple declarative sentences and independent clauses to express the will of the speaker (§ 239).
303. In some kinds of subordinate clauses, the use of should and would differs considerably from that in simple sentences and principal clauses.
The following classes require attention:—(1) clauses of purpose or expectation (§ 304), (2) conditional and concessive clauses (§ 305), (3) clauses expressing volition not that of the subject (§ 306), (4) clauses stating something as an idea (§ 307), (5) indirect discourse (§ 308).
304. In subordinate clauses expressing the purpose or expectation with which anything is done, shall and should are used in all three persons.
305. In conditional or concessive clauses expressing a future supposed case doubtfully, shall and should are used in all three persons; but will and would are proper when the subject is thought of as wishing or consenting.
When a future supposed case is admitted or conceded as certain, will may be used in the second and third persons to denote mere futurity.
306. Shall and should are often used in the second and third persons in subordinate clauses to express volition which is not that of the subject.
307. When a clause with that states something, not as a fact but as an idea to be considered, should is the proper auxiliary in all three persons.
308. For shall and will, should and would, in indirect discourse, see §§ 438–439.
309. The infinitive is a verb-form that has some of the properties of a noun (§ 28). Its two-sided character comes out clearly when it is used as the subject of a sentence.
Each of these infinitives (to hope, to flatter, etc.) is a noun, for each is the simple subject of a sentence. Besides, an ordinary noun may be substituted for each infinitive with no change in meaning; as,—“Hope is our only resource”; “Flattery is not my custom”; “Sleep was an impossibility.”
But each of these infinitives is also a verb,—for (1) it expresses action; (2) it may be modified by an adverb, as in No. 5; (3) it takes an object if it is transitive, as in No. 6.
An infinitive (as the examples show) has regularly no subject and therefore lacks both number and person. Hence it is not bound by the general rule for the agreement of a verb with its subject (§ 222). From this fact it derives its name, infinitive, which means “unrestricted” or “free from limitations.”38
310. The infinitive is a verb-form which partakes of the nature of a noun. It expresses action or state in the simplest possible way, without person or number.
It is commonly preceded by the preposition to, which is called the sign of the infinitive.
To is not, in strictness, a part of the infinitive, but it may be so regarded for convenience, since the infinitive, in most of its uses, is preceded by to.
Note. To sometimes stands for an infinitive in careless speech: as,—“You may go if you wish to” (that is, “if you wish to go”). Such expressions are to be avoided. It is better to say, “You may go if you wish.”
311. The infinitive often lacks to, especially in verb-phrases with the auxiliaries will, shall, may, can, must, might, could, would, should, do, did. For examples, see pp. 102, 114, 124.
312. The infinitive has two tenses,—the present and the perfect.
1. The present infinitive is the verb in its simplest form, usually preceded by to: as,—to live, to teach, to bind, to strike.
2. The perfect infinitive is made by prefixing the infinitive of the auxiliary verb have to the past participle (§ 243): as,—to have lived, to have taught, to have bound, to have struck.
313. An infinitive may be modified by an adverb, an adverbial phrase, or an adverbial clause.
No modifier should be inserted between to and the infinitive.
Note. Careless writers pay slight attention to this rule, and some good writers and speakers defy it, hoping to break it down. But it is unquestionably still in accord with the best usage.
314. The infinitive may take an object if its meaning allows.
315. The infinitive is used in a variety of constructions,—(1) as a noun, (2) as an adjective modifier or adverbial modifier, (3) in the so-called infinitive clause.
316. The infinitive is used in various noun constructions,—as subject, as predicate nominative, as nominative of exclamation, as appositive, as object of certain prepositions, as modifier.
317. An infinitive with or without a complement or modifiers, may be used as the subject of a sentence, as a predicate nominative, or as an appositive.
318. An infinitive in the predicate is often in apposition with the expletive subject it.
In this use the infinitive, though grammatically in apposition with it, is really the subject of the thought (see § 120, 2).
319. The infinitive may be used as the object of the prepositions but, except, about.
Note. Can but and cannot but are distinct idioms. (1) In “I can but thank you,” but is an adverb (= only). The sentence means: “I can only thank you—simply that and nothing more!” (2) In “I cannot but thank you,” but is a preposition (= except). The idiom is shortened from “I cannot choose but thank you,”—that is, “I have no choice except to do so,” or, in other words, “I cannot help it.”
The infinitive after for (now a gross error) was once in good use: as,—
What sweeter music can we bring
Than a carol for to sing.—Herrick.
320. The infinitive may be used as a nominative of exclamation (§ 88, 4).
321. An infinitive may be used as an adjective modifier of a noun or as an adverbial modifier of an adjective.
In this use the infinitive is said to depend on the word which it modifies.
| With Nouns (Adjective Modifier) | With Adjectives (Adverbial Modifier) |
|---|---|
| An opportunity to advance came. | The men are ready to advance. |
| Determination to win brings success. | John is eager to win. |
| Willingness to oblige makes friends. | I shall be glad to oblige you. |
| I wish I had the ability to swim. | We are all able to swim. |
| His anxiety to please us was laughable. | He is anxious to please everybody. |
Note. This use is due to the fact that the infinitive with to is really a prepositional phrase (§ 42). Thus, “determination to win” is equivalent to “determination for victory,” and “eager to win” to “eager for victory.” The adjective force of the infinitive comes out clearly in “nothing to eat,” where to eat is practically synonymous with eatable.
In its adjective use, the present infinitive sometimes shows no distinction in voice, so that the active and the passive are interchangeable: as,—“a house to let” or “to be let”; “an axe to grind” or “to be ground.” In such expressions the active form is usually preferable.
322. The infinitive without to may be used as an adjective modifier after the direct object of see, hear, feel, and some other verbs of like meaning.
In this use the infinitive is practically equivalent to a participle. Compare “I heard him shout” with “I heard him shouting.” Hence the substantive may be regarded as an object, and the infinitive as its modifier. But the construction closely approaches that of an infinitive clause (§§ 324–325).
323. An infinitive may modify a verb (1) by completing its meaning, or (2) by expressing the purpose of the action.
After dare, the complementary infinitive may or may not have to. Thus,—“I dare not do it”; “Who will dare to speak?”
Both the complementary infinitive and the infinitive of purpose may be regarded as adverbial phrases modifying the verb.
Note. After some verbs the infinitive approaches the construction of a pure noun and is often regarded as an object. Thus,—“I desire to see you” (compare “I desire a sight of you”). It is simpler, however, to regard all such infinitives as complementary and to treat them as adverbial modifiers. For it is impossible to distinguish the construction of the infinitive after certain adjectives (as in “I am eager to see you”) from its construction after such verbs as wish and desire.
324. A peculiar infinitive construction often replaces a that-clause as the object of a verb. Thus,—
I wished {that he should go. | him to go.}
In the first sentence, the noun clause that he should go is the object of wished; in the second, this clause is replaced by him to go, but without any change in meaning. This expression consists of two parts:—(1) him, a pronoun in the objective case, which replaces the subject he; and (2) an infinitive to go, which replaces the predicate should go. Thus it is plain that him to go is also a noun clause, of which him is the subject, and to go the predicate. Such an expression is called an infinitive clause.
325. A kind of clause, consisting of a substantive in the objective case followed by an infinitive, may be used as the object of certain verbs.
Such clauses are called infinitive clauses, and the substantive is said to be the subject of the infinitive.
The subject of an infinitive is in the objective case.
Infinitive clauses are used (1) after verbs of wishing, commanding, advising, and the like, and (2) after some verbs of believing, declaring, and perceiving.39 Thus,—
After a few verbs the infinitive without to is used in infinitive clauses.
Note. Ordinarily the infinitive cannot assert and hence has no subject (§ 309). The infinitive clause is, therefore, a peculiar exception, for him to go makes an assertion as clearly as that he should go does. That him is really the subject of to go and not the object of wished is manifest, for I wished him makes no sense. The object of wished is the whole clause (him to go).
Originally, to be sure, the noun or pronoun in the objective was felt to be the object of the main verb, and this relation may still be felt in “I ordered him to go”; but even here the real object of ordered is the clause (as may be seen in “I ordered the castle to be blown up”). The substantive has come to be the real subject of the infinitive, and should be so treated in parsing.
326. A predicate pronoun after to be in an infinitive clause is in the objective case, agreeing with the subject of the infinitive.
Care should be taken not to confuse this construction with the predicate nominative (§ 88, 2).
| Predicate Pronoun after to be | Predicate Nominative |
|---|---|
| I believed it to be her. | I believed that it was she. |
| We know the author to be him. | We know that the author is he. |
| The author is known to be he. | |
| He thought Richard to be me. | He thought that Richard was I. |
| Richard was thought to be I. | |
| We suspected the intruders to be them. | We suspected that the intruders were they. |
Note the case of the relatives and of the predicate pronouns in the following sentences:—
327. An infinitive clause may be the object of the preposition for. Thus,—
328. An infinitive clause with for may be used as a subject, as a predicate nominative, or as the object of a preposition.
329. Certain words unite in themselves some of the properties of adjectives with some of the properties of verbs. Such words are called participles (§ 31). Thus,—
Shattered and sinking, but gallantly returning the enemy’s fire, the frigate drifted out to sea.
Shattered, sinking, and returning are verb-forms which are in some respects similar to infinitives: for (1) they express action; (2) they have no subject to agree with, and hence have neither person nor number; and (3) one of them takes a direct object. They differ from infinitives, however, in that they resemble, not nouns, but adjectives, for they describe the substantive frigate to which they belong.
Such verb-forms are called participles, because they share (or participate in) the nature of adjectives.
330. The participle is a verb-form which has no subject, but which partakes of the nature of an adjective and expresses action or state in such a way as to describe or limit a substantive.
331. Verbs have three participles,—the present, the past, and the perfect.
332. The present participle ends in -ing. It usually describes an action as taking place at the same time with some other action.
333. The present participle often refers to time preceding that denoted by the predicate verb.
334. The past participle is always associated with the idea of past time or completed action.
1. The past participle of a weak verb has the same form as the past tense.40
| Present Tense | Past Tense | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|
| I mend chairs. | I mended the chairs. | The chairs are mended. |
| I sweep the rooms. | I swept the rooms. | The rooms are swept. |
| I seek treasure. | I sought treasure. | Treasure is sought. |
| I lose money. | I lost money. | The money is lost. |
2. The past participle of strong verbs shows a change from the vowel of the present tense.
All strong verbs had originally the ending en (n) in the past participle, but this ending has been lost in many verbs.
| Present Tense | Past Tense | Past Participle |
|---|---|---|
| He speaks. | He spoke. | (He has) spoken. |
| He draws. | He drew. | (He has) drawn. |
| He sings. | He sang. | (He has) sung. |
| He wins. | He won. | (He has) won. |
The forms show great variety and must be learned by practice. (See pp. 291–297 for a list.)
335. The perfect participle is made by prefixing having to the past participle.
336. The present participle is used in forming the progressive verb-phrases (§§ 255–259).
The past participle is used in forming the complete tenses (§§ 242–244) and the passive voice (§ 247).
337. Since the participle has adjective properties, its constructions are in the main like those of adjectives.
338. A participle is said to belong to the substantive which it describes or limits.
339. A participle should not be used without some substantive to which it may belong.
Apparent exceptions are concerning, considering, pending, generally speaking, etc. The first three may be classed as prepositions (§ 355), the last as an independent participle.
We fought every day, and, generally speaking, twice every day.—De Quincey.
Note. The rule in § 339 does not apply to such phrases as on entering, after investigating, etc., in which the words in -ing are not participles, but verbal nouns (§ 348). Thus the following sentences are grammatical:—“On entering the room, a strange sight appeared”; “After investigating the subject, the plan was adopted.” Such expressions, however, should be used with caution, since they are sometimes awkward or ambiguous.
340. A participle may be modified by an adverb, an adverbial phrase, or an adverbial clause.
341. A participle may take an object if its meaning allows.
The participle, with its modifiers and such other words as are attached to it, is sometimes called a participial phrase.
342. A participle may be used as a pure adjective.
343. The past participle is often used as a predicate adjective expressing state or condition.
This construction is easily confused with the passive of verbs. The distinction may be seen in the following examples:—
In the first sentence, were drenched is the past passive of the verb drench (compare the active “every time a gust of wind struck us, it drenched us”). In the second, the participle drenched expresses mere condition, and is therefore a predicate adjective. The distinction, however, is not always sharp, and in cases of doubt the phrase may be taken together as a passive verb.
Note. The real test is the following. Whenever a person or thing is distinctly present to the mind as the doer of the action, we have a passive verb-phrase. Whenever, on the other hand, the participle merely describes condition with no thought of its being the result of an antecedent act, the construction is that of a predicate adjective (§ 172, 3).
344. A substantive, with the participle belonging to it, is often used to make a peculiar form of adverbial modifying phrase: as,—
The wind failing, we lowered the sail.
Here the wind failing is equivalent to an adverbial phrase (on the failure of the wind) or an adverbial clause (when the wind failed). It defines the time of the action.
{The wind failing, | On the failure of the wind, | When the wind failed,} we lowered the sail.
345. A substantive, with a participle, may express the cause, time, or circumstances of an action.
This is called the absolute construction.
The substantive is in the nominative case and is called a nominative absolute.
Note. This construction is called absolute (that is, “free” or “loosened”) because the substantive is not in any one of the constructions (subject, object, apposition, etc.) which ordinarily attach nouns grammatically to other words in the sentence. Nevertheless, the whole phrase, though standing apart from the rest of the sentence, is in meaning an adverbial modifier of some verb.
346. The participle being is sometimes omitted in the absolute construction.
347. English has a large and important class of verbal nouns that end in -ing, and that serve as the names of actions.
These are identical in form with present participles, for which they are frequently mistaken. The distinction, however, is clear, for the present participle is never used as the name of an action. Hence no such word in -ing that is a subject or an object, or stands in any other noun construction, can be a participle.
That nouns in -ing are real nouns may be proved by putting ordinary nouns in their place.
| Travelling broadens the mind. | Travel broadens the mind. |
| Talking is useless. | Talk is useless. |
| He is afraid of falling. | He is afraid of a fall. |
348. From nearly every English verb there may be formed a verbal noun in -ing.
Verbal nouns in -ing have the form of present participles, but the construction of nouns.
They are often called participial nouns.
Such nouns are freely used, either by themselves or in a series along with ordinary nouns.
349. Verbal nouns in -ing have certain properties of the verb.
1. Verbal nouns in -ing may take a direct or an indirect object if their meaning allows.
2. A verbal noun in -ing may take an adverbial modifier.
Speaking extemporaneously is good practice. [Here the verbal noun speaking is the simple subject; but it is modified by the adverb extemporaneously, precisely as if it were a verb.]
But verbal nouns in -ing, like other nouns, may be modified by adjectives.
Extemporaneous speaking is good practice.
3. To the verbal nouns being and having, past participles may be attached, so as to give the effect of voice and tense.
Such expressions are verbal noun-phrases.
350. Verbal nouns in -ing are similar in some of their constructions to infinitives used as nouns (p. 135).
| Infinitive as Noun | Verbal Noun in -ing |
|---|---|
| To swim was difficult. | Swimming was difficult. |
| My business is to make shoes. | My business is making shoes. |
| To see is to believe. | Seeing is believing. |
Nouns in -ing are sometimes called infinitives or gerunds.
351. A noun in -ing may be used as an adjective, or as the adjective element in a compound noun (§ 64).
Note. Other examples are:—a working day, an ironing board, drinking water, smelling salts, marching orders, a walking tour, a swimming race, a vaulting pole. In such cases it makes little difference whether the two nouns are taken together as a compound, or whether the first is regarded as an adjective modifying the second. The difference between this use and that of the participle is perfectly clear. A “sleeping dog” is a dog that sleeps; a “sleeping car” is a car for sleeping. Sometimes, indeed, either explanation is possible. Thus, a “hoisting engine” may be understood either as an “engine that hoists,” or as an “engine for hoisting.” But it is better to class these exceptions with the nouns in -ing.
352. When a verbal noun in -ing is preceded by an article or any other adjective, it cannot take an object.
Observe that, in each instance, the object (song-birds, ship, maps, confectionery, wells) is replaced by a prepositional phrase when an article or other adjective precedes the verbal noun.
Note. In such expressions as “I went a-fishing,” a is a shortened form of the preposition on, and fishing is a verbal noun used as its object. When a is omitted we have “I went fishing,” “The house is building,” and the like, in which the word in -ing seems to be a participle, but is really the object of the omitted a (= on).
353. The possessive case of a noun or pronoun may be used to limit a verbal noun in -ing.