INFINITIVES

266. Infinitives, like participles, have no tense. When active, they have an indefinite, an imperfect, a perfect, and a perfect definite form; and when passive, an indefinite and a perfect form, to express action unconnected with a subject.
267. INFINITIVES OF THE VERB CHOOSE.

ACTIVE VOICE.
Indefinite.	[To] choose.
Imperfect.	[To] be choosing.
Perfect.	[To] have chosen.
Perfect definite.	[To] have been choosing.
PASSIVE VOICE.
Indefinite.	[To] be chosen.
Perfect.	[To] have been chosen.

To with the infinitive.
268. In Sec. 267 the word to is printed in brackets because it is not a necessary part of the infinitive.
It originally belonged only to an inflected form of the infinitive, expressing purpose; as in the Old English, “Ūt ēode se sǣdere his sæd tō sāwenne” (Out went the sower his seed to sow).
Cases when to is omitted.
But later, when inflections became fewer, to was used before the infinitive generally, except in the following cases:—
(1) After the auxiliaries shall, will (with should and would).
(2) After the verbs may (might), can (could), must; also let, make, do (as, “I do go” etc.), see, bid(command), feel, hear, watch, please; sometimes need (as, “He need not go“) and dare (to venture).
(3) After had in the idiomatic use; as, “You had better go” “He had rather walk than ride.”
(4) In exclamations; as in the following examples:—
“He find pleasure in doing good!” cried Sir William.—Goldsmith.
I urge an address to his kinswoman! I approach her when in a base disguise! I do this!—Scott.
“She ask my pardon, poor woman!” cried Charles.—Macaulay.
269. Shall and will are not to be taken as separate verbs, but with the infinitive as one tense of a verb; as, “He will choose,” “I shall have chosen,” etc.
Also do may be considered an auxiliary in the interrogative, negative, and emphatic forms of the present and past, also in the imperative; as,—
What! doth she, too, as the credulous imagine, learn [doth learn is one verb, present tense] the love of the great stars? —Bulwer.
Do not entertain so weak an imagination—Burke.
She did not weep—she did not break forth into reproaches.—Irving.
270. The infinitive is sometimes active in form while it is passive in meaning, as in the expression, “a house to let.” Examples are,—
She was a kind, liberal woman; rich rather more than needed where there were no opera boxes to rent.—De Quincey.
Tho’ it seems my spurs are yet to win.—Tennyson.
But there was nothing to do.—Howells.
They shall have venison to eat, and corn to hoe.—Cooper.
Nolan himself saw that something was to pay.—E. E. Hale.