What Is a Passive Infinitive

In English grammar, the passive infinitive is an infinitive construction in which the agent (or performer of the action) either appears in a prepositional phrase following the verb or is not identified at all. It is also called the  present passive infinitive. The passive infinitive is made up of the marker to be a past participle (also known as the -ed or -en form), as in The case is to be decided by a judge. Passive Versus Active Infinitive Sentence Construction But lets back up to first show just what passive construction  (also called passive voice) is. A sentence constructed in a passive manner may not have a clear subject doing the action of the verb. Take this passive sentence: A cheer was heard from the field. There is no actor that goes with the verb was heard. You could make it active by using a better verb and adding a subject to construct the following: A cheer rose from the field, or I heard the cheer from the field. Better still would be to add a more specific subject if it is known (and thus add more detail and imagery), such as in The fans on the visitors side of the field cheered.   If the subject had been identified but the sentence was still passive, it could have read, A cheer by the fans on the visitors side was heard from the field or something similar. Do you see how the active voice is still better just by being less wordy? In most writing, you want to avoid passive construction as much as possible. Sometimes it is unavoidable but wherever you can revise it out of your sentences, your writing will be stronger for it overall. Examples of Passive Infinitives Understanding passive voice leads to easy identification of passive infinitives, as they are passive constructions using infinitive verbs. Examples: Everybody wanted  to be told  over and over again the things which had happened to her.The answer to that mystery was not likely  to be revealed  to me anytime soon.Hold your tongue, said the King, very crossly. I intend you to behave prettily to her. So now go and make yourself fit  to be seen, as I am going to take you to visit her.He had come home feeling heroic, and ready  to be rewarded. Playing in the big leagues again had rejuvenated him.The foundation of imitation among us comes from the desire  to be transported  out of ourselves. Double Passives Double passives  are those phrases that contain two connected passive verbs, the second of which is a passive infinitive.  For example, examine The seasonal work  was  needed  to be done  by temporary employees.   To  transform the example to active voice, recast the sentence by inserting a subject and rearranging to make The company needed temporary employees to do the seasonal work. Adjectives With Passive Infinitives You may also see adjectives inserted into a passive infinitive construction, such as fit, ready, eager, and easy. Check out these examples from A History of the English Language: With  adjectives,  passive infinitives  are generally only used in PDE [present-day English] when an active infinitive may lead to ambiguity, as in the case of  likely  or  fit, cf.  you are not fit to be seen...Another adjective which has retained the option of using a passive infinitive is  ready. Thus the well-known ambiguity of (113) can be avoided by using the variant in (114): (113) The lamb is ready to eat.(114) The lamb is ready to be eaten. Olga Fischer and Wim van der Wurff, Syntax. Other adjectives still allowing the passive infinitive tend to be like  ready  in that they can occur in both the  easy-to-please  construction...and the  eager-to-please  construction (where it is to be interpreted as the subject of the infinitive). Sources Baugh, Albert C. A History of the English Language. 6th New edition edition, Routledge, August 17, 2012. Burnett, Frances Hodgson. A Little Princess. Paperback, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, January 24, 2019. Fischer, Olga. A Brief History of English Syntax. Hendrik De Smet, Wim van der Wurff, Cambridge University Press, July 17, 2017. Hartwick, Cynthia. Ladies with Prospects: A Novel. Paperback, 1st edition, Berkley Trade, April 6, 2004. Lang, Andrew. The Red Fairy Book. Dover Childrens Classics, H. J. Ford (Illustrator), Lancelot Speed (Illustrator), Paperback, Reprint. edition, Dover Publications, June 1, 1966. Phillips, Terry. Murder at the Altar. Paperback, Hye Books, February 1, 2008. Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Emile: Or On Education. Paperback, Independently published, April 16, 2019.