The Latin infinitive — Classical languages, 7–10 years
An infinitive names an action without saying who does it. It is the form behind English “to run” or Portuguese “correr”.
The action in a jar
The infinitive is a Latin verb form that names an action without choosing a person or time. Amare means “to love”, cantare means “to sing”, and dormire means “to sleep”. It lets us talk about an action as an idea, rather than as something one person is doing now.
Why name an action alone?
People often need to say what they want, try or can do. “The girl wants” feels unfinished; “The girl wants to sing” gives the missing action. Latin uses an infinitive after many such verbs, so a sentence can join a person’s wish or ability to an action clearly.
Building one sentence
Start with puella, “the girl”. Add vult, “wants”: puella vult, “the girl wants”. Now add cantare, the infinitive “to sing”: puella vult cantare, “the girl wants to sing”. The first verb tells who wants; the infinitive supplies the action wanted. No extra word is needed for “to”.
Do not look for a person ending
A sensible mistake is to translate every verb as if it says “I”, “you” or “she”. A learner sees amare and may choose “she loves”, because it looks like a complete verb in a sentence. But amare only names the action: “to love”. Look for another verb or a context that supplies the person.
Labels for actions
Infinitives appear when people describe activities: “to swim”, “to read” or “to build”. Latin learners meet the same idea in phrases about wanting, being able or beginning to act. It is useful because the action can be named without deciding who does it at that moment.
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