The infinitive used as an attribute immediately follows its head-noun.

Our company builds houses to suit many different types of purchasers.

Do you get much chance to travel in your job?

The infinitive mainly serves as an attribute to nouns proper and certain noun equivalents:

1) to nouns, such as place, man, person, time, thing, book, attempt, chance, opportunity, permission, decision, intention, necessity, offer, promise, way, wish:

Have you got much work to do?

I was the second customer to complain to the restaurant manager about the service.

What a thing to say!

2) to indefinite pronouns, such as somebody, nobody, anybody, anything and the prop-word one:

Would you like something to eat?

3) to ordinal numerals and the adjective (the) last:

If I have any more news, you will be the first to know.

4) to the pronouns much, little and their equivalents a lot, plenty, etc.

There was a lot to do.

Note 1. When the infinitive is used as an attribute it often has modal force:

I've got an essay to write. (=an essay which I must write).

Note 2. The passive infinitive is not often used in the attribute function:

It's a book to read.

British trains have communication cords to be operated only in emergency.

Exceptions: There is nothing / something to do, to say, to see / to be done, to be said, to be seen.

The passive infinitive may have a future meaning:

They were discussing the flowers to be planted on both sides of the entrance gate.

When the subject of the sentence is the person who is to do the action described by the infinitive, we do not normally use the passive:

I've got a book to read.

Sometimes active and passive infinitives are interchangeable:

There was a lot to do / to be done.

Active and passive infinitives can have different meanings:

There was nothing to do, so we played computer games. (i.e. we were bored)

He's dead. There's nothing to be done. (i.e. we can't change that)

Date: 2015-04-20; view: 2481