Verbs and syntax VII: infinitives

• Infinitives are the parts of verbs that correspond to the English forms that use to: to love, to be loved, and so forth. Only three of the six tenses have them in Latin, and half of those are cheat forms cobbled together out of participles or supines. But it's important to recognise the one-word forms in particular, because the present ones turn up in principal parts, and as we've seen the present and perfect active forms are used to form tenses of the subjunctive.