» Infinitivo (Infinitive)

The infinitivo (English: infinitive) is the most basic for of a verb, not conjugated in any tense, mood or grammatical person.

Spanish infinitives may be easily recognized by their last two letters. There are three possibilities, so we have three conjugation groups:

• verbs ending in -ar
• verbs ending in -er
• verbs ending in -ir

It’s very common to use a Spanish infinitive in the function of a noun.

There are two forms of the infinitive in Spanish:

• Simple (Spanish: simple – same spelling, different pronunciation)
  The simple form of the Spanish infinitive is one word long. The examples of the simple infinitives are:
  • estar
  • ser
  • venir
• Compound (Spanish: compuesto)
  The compound forms of Spanish infinitives consist of two words. The first one is the infinitive of the auxiliary verb haber. The second one is the past participle (Spanish: participio) of the main verb. The examples of the compound verbs are:
  • haber estado
  • haber sido
  • haber venido

---