I. It is used with the following groups of verbs in the Passive Voice:
1. With verbs denoting sense perception: to see, to hear, to feel, to watch, to notice, to observe. (Only Non-Perfect, Non-Continuous Infinitive Active Voice is used. It denotes a completed action).
He was heard to repeat those words several times. ( , ...)
The boat was seen to disappear in the waves. ( , ...)
If a process is expressed, Participle I Indefinite Active is used:
The girls father was heard approaching at that moment.
, .
2. With verbs denoting mental activity: to think, to consider, to know, to find, to expect, to believe, to suppose, to mean, to regard, to understand.
(Any form of the Infinitive is used), e.g.: He was thought to be honest and kindly.
The manuscript is believed to have been written in the XVth century.
3. With verbs denoting order/ request/ permission: to order, to bid, to tell, to command, to ask, to beg, to beseech, to request, to allow, to permit, to let, to forbid. (Only Non-Perfect Infinitive is used), e.g.: They were requested to be ready by 7 oclock. He was ordered/ asked/ allowed to go there right away.
4. With verbs denoting compulsion: to make, to induce, to force, to cause, to compel. (Only Non-Perfect Infinitive is used), e.g.: He was made to keep silence.
5. With verbs of saying/ reporting/ declaring: to say, to report, to declare, to pronounce, to announce, to state. (Any form of the Infinitive is used).
It is said to have been raining in the valley for a week. The pilot is reported to have started on his flight early in the morning.
From these examples we can see that in translating sentences containing the Subjective Infinitive Construction after verbs in the Passive Voice a complex sentence is mostly used: its principal clause is of the type which in Ukrainian syntax is called indefinite personal (-).
II. The Subjective Infinitive Construction is used with the following verbs in the Active Voice:
6. to seem / to appear (any form of the infinitive)
to happen / to chance (only Non-Perfect Infinitive)
to prove / to turn out (any form of the Infinitive)
They seemed to have quite forgotten him already.Only yesterday we happened to see him. The experiment proved to be a failure.
7. It is used with the word-groups: to be (un)likely, to be sure, to be (un)certain (Only Non-Perfect Infinitive is used. Its action refers to the future).
He is sure to marry her. It is unlikely to rain soon. You are certain to like him.
Sentences of this kind are rendered in Russian by a simple sentence with a modal word.
NOTE 1: Mind the difference between:
He is sure to come. ³ .
He is sure of coming. ³ , .
NOTE 2: The infinitive in sentences with the Subjective Infinitive Construction cannot refer to a future action except with verbs and word-groups whose meaning allows of it: to expect, to be sure (certain), likely: We are sure to come to the heart of the matter.He is expected to give us an answer tomorrow.
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NOTE 3: With some verbs such as to see, to hear, to order, to allow, to permit, to know, etc. a sentence with the Subjective Infinitive Construction has a corresponding active construction in which the Objective Infinitive Construction is used: He was heard to repeat it several times. They heard him repeat it several times. She was allowed to take the books.They allowed her to take the books.
THE OBJECTIVE INFINITIVE CONSTRUCTION
(traditionally called the Accusative-with-the-Infinitive Construction) is the construction in which the infinitive is in predicate relation to a noun in the Common case or a pronoun in the Objective case. In the sentence this construction has the function of a complex object.
