Chapter 145

ON THE MOODS.

§ 483. The infinitive mood is a noun. The current rule that _when two verbs come together the latter is placed in the infinitive mood_, means that one verb can govern another only by converting it into a noun--_I begin to move_ = _I begin the act of moving_. Verbs, _as verbs_, can only come together in the way of apposition--_I irritate_, _I beat_, _I talk at him_, _I call him names_, &c.

§ 484. The construction, however, of English infinitives is two fold. (1.) Objective. (2.) Gerundial.

When one verb is followed by another without the preposition _to_, the construction must be considered to have grown out of the objective case, or from the form in -an.

Such is the case with the following words, and, probably, with others:

I may go, _not_ I may _to_ go. I might go, -- I might _to_ go. I can move, -- I can _to_ move. I could move, -- I could _to_ move. I will speak, -- I will _to_ speak. I would speak, -- I would _to_ speak. I shall wait, -- I shall _to_ wait. I should wait, -- I should _to_ wait. Let me go, -- Let me _to_ go. He let me go, -- He let me _to_ go. I do speak, -- I do _to_ speak. I did speak, -- I did _to_ speak. I dare go, -- I dare _to_ go. I durst go, -- I durst _to_ go.

This, in the present English, is the rarer of the two constructions.

When a verb is followed by another, preceded by the preposition _to_, the construction must be considered to have grown out of the so-called gerund, i.e., the form in -nne, i.e., the dative case--_I begin to move_. This is the case with the great majority of English verbs.

§ 485. _Imperatives_ have three peculiarities. (1.) They can only, in English, be used in the second person--_go thou on_, _get you gone_, &c.: (2.) They take pronouns after, instead of before them: (3.) They often omit the pronoun altogether.

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