Infinitival Verbs

History of the Infinitival Construction

As we move from the book of Acts and Luke towards the book of Revelation, we notice the disappearance of the infinitive construction.Between 100 AD and 1100 AD, it disappeared, and modern Greek has completely lost the form.

Morphology

The infinitive has new endings that need to be memorized. The infinitive paradigm is here.

Translated as idiomatic expressions

The infinitive is translated into English as idiomatic expressions that must be memorized:

Greek	English translation
meta to paqein auton	After he had sufferred
en tw luein	While loosing
dia to legesqai	On account of saying
eis to mh lenesqai	In order tobecome
prin elqein	Before coming

There are three distinct characteristics of the infinitive construction:

They are prepositional phrases
They are infinitival expressions
They are idiomatic expressions

The particle mh is used to negate an infinitive.

Forms of the Infinitive

Present Active Infinitive PAInfin

Aorist Passive Infinitive APInfin

Uses of the Infinitive

Accusative of General Reference - The infinitive is used as the subject (not the nominative case which normally is the subject).

Complementary Infinitive - goes along with the verb

Best Viewed with Netscape 3.0