How is the infinitive phrase used in the sentence, "He wants to tell you about his day."?

1 Answer
Mar 12, 2018

It is used as a direct object.

Explanation:

To begin with, what is an infinitive ?

  • An infinitive is "to + a verb". In infinitive phrase begins with the infinitive, and contains any complements or modifiers.

So where is it in our sentence? I highlighted it for you:

He wants "to tell you about his day"to tell you about his day.

To find what part of speech it is, let's find the subject and verb of the sentence:

stackrel("subject")overbrace"He" stackrel("verb")overbrace("wants") stackrel("infinitive phrase") overbrace("to tell you about his day").

Now ask yourself: "What does he want?"
The answer: "To tell you about his day".

Since the infinitive phrase "to tell you about his day" answers the question "what", it is a direct object. It is receiving the "want" of the subject he.

This is a good video on direct objects: