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1. I promised him (= to him) a good supper. (Active.) A good supper was promised him. (Passive.)

He was promised a good supper. (Passive.)

2. We told her (= to her) that we were hungry. (Active; the direct object is the clause that we were hungry.)

She was told that we were hungry. (Passive.)

NOTE. Do not use the passive voice in such clumsy expressions as 'She was told by our guide that we were hungry'; say 'Our guide told her that we were hungry'.

214. Predicate objective, etc. A noun, pronoun, or adjective may be used in the predicate to complete the meaning of the verb and modify its direct object; such a modifier is called a predicate objective (or adjunct accusative, § 606); in the passive voice the direct object becomes the subject, and the predicate objective remains in the predicate as a predicate adjective or predicate nominative, modifying the subject (§ 158):

1. They made him captain. (= They made captain him.) He was made captain. (Predicate nominative.)

2. What did you name her? She was named what? (Predicate nominative.)

3. He painted his house gray. (= He painted gray his house.) His house was painted gray. (Predicate adjective.) (Exercise XXIV, § 569.)

215. Verbal nouns. There are two kinds of nouns formed from the verb, called the infinitive (§ 165) and the gerund (§§ 223-229). These verbal nouns are used in the nominative or the objective case, like ordinary nouns; but, unlike ordinary nouns, they have tense and voice, and may take the same constructions (object, modifier, predicate noun, etc.) as the verb from which they are formed (§§ 626, 627, 632, 633, etc.):

1. To see is to believe; seeing is believing.

2. To see her was to love her; seeing her was loving her.

3. She likes to read aloud; she enjoys reading aloud. 4. To be poor is no disgrace; being poor is no disgrace. 5. Houses to let, water to drink; houses for letting, etc. 6. A new way to make bread; a new way of making bread.

NOTE. The infinitive was formerly classed as a mood. It was called infinitive (= unlimited) because of its not being limited by having person and number. The indicative, subjunctive, and imperative, which have person and number, were called finite moods.

216. Infinitive as second object. The infinitive is often used as the second of two objects:

a. Without to in the active voice:

1. I saw her fall. (Passively, 'She was seen to fall'.)

2. We made (or let) him help us with our work.

3. He felt his heart throb.

b. With to, the two objects being equivalent to a clause (often called the infinitive clause, the first object being spoken of as the subject of the infinitive):

1. She believed him to be honest (= that he was honest).

2. We felt (found, knew, saw, thought, etc.) him to be our friend.

217. Infinitive as object of preposition. The infinitive and its subject may be used as the object of the preposition for; the infinitive alone may be used as the object of the prepositions about, but, except, excepting, and save (but no longer of for, as in Matthew, xi, 8: But what went ye out for to see?"):

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1. For him to come would be impossible. (Him to come is the object of for; for him to come is the subject of the sentence, being equivalent to his coming. In 'It would be impossible for him to come' for him to come is again the subject of the sentence, it being an expletive, with for him to come in apposition, § 61, d.) 2. They were about to start to town.

3. He could do nothing but laugh at the whole affair.

218. Infinitive or subject omitted. The infinitive, when used with a subject, is often omitted; colloquially (§ 380) the infinitive after to is often omitted; when the infinitive depends on the verb hear, the subject of the infinitive is sometimes omitted (colloquial):

1. He ordered the boys (to go) to bed.

2. I could go if I cared to. (Colloquial.)

3. I have never heard (anybody) say. (Colloquial.)

219. To be with predicate pronoun. When the infinitive to be has a subject (in the objective case, § 216), a predicate pronoun following to be is in the objective case, to agree with the subject; but when to be has no subject, the predicate pronoun is in the nominative case; when the infinitive is followed by a clause (as in the sixth example), the case of the pronoun is determined by the rule in § 78:

1. She took him to be me.

2. He was thought to be I.

Whom did you take her to be?
Should you like to be he?

3. Who were they supposed to be?

4. She thought him me. (To be is omitted.)

5. Let him be whom?

6. Let him be who he may be. Let him be whom you wish.

220. Wrong tense of infinitive. Do not use the perfect infinitive (§§ 626, 632, 638, 644, 650) except to express time earlier than that expressed by the principal verb:

1. I intended to see you. (Not 'to have seen '.)

(Not 'to have gone'. See § 188.) (Not 'to have done'.)

2. He would have liked to go. 3. It was not possible to do so. 4. She ought to have waited. (Correct; to refer to past time, the past tense is necessary, since ought refers to present time; § 186.)

221. Split infinitive. An adverb may stand in different parts of the sentence, according to the emphasis (§ 370), but should not be placed between to and an infinitive. This rule

against what is called the split infinitive is supported by the best usage, although violated in rare cases by good writers; at times it is best to recast the sentence (as in the sixth example):

1. To work quietly at home was impossible. (Not 'To quietly work'.)

2. They wished to postpone it indefinitely. (Not 'to indefinitely postpone '.)

3. It did not wholly persuade me. (Not 'It failed to wholly persuade me '.)

4. We had been hoping to achieve our object quickly. (Not 'to quickly achieve '.)

5. He asked the members to be kind enough to contribute. (Not 'to kindly contribute '.)

6. The situation forced them to silent approval. (Not 'to silently approve '.)

222. Misattached infinitive. The infinitive may be used, without a subject, to denote an action or a state in a general way; but when it is used to denote the action or state of a particular person or thing, that person or thing should be expressed, either in the objective case as the subject of the infinitive, or in the nominative case as the subject of the clause in which the infinitive stands (otherwise the infinitive is faulty, being grammatically attached to the wrong subject; compare § 229):

1. To see is to believe. (General action.)

2. He likes to read. (Action of a particular person, he.)

3. She was too heavy at heart to watch her footsteps. (Not 'Her heart was too heavy to watch her footsteps'; the subject, heart, is wrong, for it cannot watch her footsteps. But 'Her heart was too heavy for her to watch her footsteps' is correct, because to watch has the subject her.)

4. We were in too critical a situation to delay. (Not 'Our situation was too critical to delay'.)

5. You have seen enough with your own eyes not to need to be told. (Not 'Your own eyes have seen enough not to need', etc.)

6. The fire was far enough away for me not to be alarmed. (Do

not omit for me.)

7. She has already endured too much for us to add to her burdens. (Do not omit for us.)

8. To judge from what has been said, I should think he meant it. (Do not omit I should think.)

9. To prove his guilt, they brought him to trial. (Not 'he underwent a trial'.)

10. To carry on the war, the people endured much privation. (Not 'there was great privation'.) (Exercise XXV, a, § 570.)

223. Gerund modified by adjective, etc. The gerund may be modified by an adjective (including a noun in the possessive case) or by an adjective phrase with of (see § 225 also):

1. Rapid walking is good exercise.

2. There is no believing old signs. SHAKESPEARE.

3. Have you heard of his coming home? (Not' him coming '.) 4. Have you heard of Henry's coming home? (Not 'Henry coming'; § 225.)

5. The loading of the ship delayed them.

224. Gerund as object of a. The gerund is often used as the object of the preposition a or a- (a remnant of the old preposition on); after the verb go (occasionally after other verbs) the preposition is usually omitted:

1. He set the old clock a going. (Or, a-going.)

2. We will go (a) hunting.

3. The children have gone chestnutting.

225. Gerund and participle distinguished. The present gerund is identical in form with the present participle (§ 175); but the former is a noun, and the latter an adjective:

1. Then he began, laughing. (Participle, modifying he.)
2. Then he began laughing.
3. He burst out (a) laughing.

a, expressed or understood.)

(Gerund, object of began.)
(Gerund, object of the preposition

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