Sunday, November 12, 2017

How to use infinitive after 'to be' verbs?


I wonder how an infinitive should be used after a to be verbs, i.e. does the infinitive used this way have to use 'to' or not. For example:





  1. All you have to do is sit (or to sit or sitting??) and wait.

  2. So, what we did in this lecture was create (to create or creating??) a new style for our activity ...




Answer





  1. All you have to do is (to) sit and wait.





  2. So, what we did in this lecture was (to) create a new style for our activity ...




It must be an infinitival verb phrase. Gerund-participial clauses (the -ing kind) are not permitted here.


The bare infinitival (without the to) is usual, but where the subject noun phrase contains do in a relative clause, as it does in both your examples, to can be optionally added.


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