Company reports

The Chairman opened his address to the shareholders by pointing out that pre-tax profits had fallen for the second year running, which was disappointing Market conditions were difficult for almost every company and the combination of high interest rates and the strong dollar had affected profit margins

Parliamentary reports

Mr Harry Greene said that airlines were losing money because of their cheap air fares policies We could only expect airlines to fail unless they were supported by massive government grants

15.27.3 'Free indirect speech'

The following is an example of fiction in which indirect speech is freely woven into the narrative to reveal a person's thoughts, motives, etc.: Opening his case he found a handkerchief inside it It was certainly not his for the initials M D B were stitched into the corner So that was their little game, he thought Someone had opened his case to plant this evidence But how did they open the case? How did they even know the case was his, he wondered, as he slowly unfolded the dead man's handkerchief

16 The infinitive and the '-ing' form

The bare infinitive

The infinitive and the '-ing' form

The base form of a verb (go) often functions as an infinitive. It is called the bare infinitive because it is used without to. We must distinguish it from the to-infinitive, where to is always used in front of the base form of the verb (to go). The -ing form of a verb (going) sometimes functions as a gerund (i.e. a kind of noun) and sometimes as a present participle [> 16.38]. Many verbs and adjectives, and some nouns, can be followed by one or other of these forms, and in some cases by more than one form. From the student's point of view, the problem is knowing which form is appropriate. This may be because only one form is grammatically correct, e.g. enjoy doing[> 16.42], fail to do [> 16.19]. Or it may be because only one form suits what we want to say, e.g. remember doing or remember to do[> 16.59].

16.2 Forms of the infinitive [compare -ing > 1.56,16.41]

Active passive

present infinitive: (to) ask (to) be asked

present progressive infinitive: (to) be asking

perfect or past infinitive: (to) have asked (to) have been asked

perfect/past progressive infinitive: (to) have been asking