The complementary in nitive is when a verb ful lls the sense of another verb.

For example: I want to sleep the in nitive to sleep completes the sentence. Without the in nitive to sleep the sentence I want does not make much sense. An in nitive in English is the form of the verb with to in front. For example to be or not to be and to jump are in nitives. Latin expresses the in nitive with the -re ending that we see in the dictionary entry . For example amo, amare and porto, portare. Amare is to love and portare is to carry. The term complementary comes from the Latin complere - to ll up. It should not be confused with the English wordcomplimentary which means either free of charge or nicety. Some imporant words that take the in nitive are: possum to be able to, soleo to be accustomed to, volo to want to, debeo to ought to and cupio to desire to. In the rst sentence Caesar wants the main verb is vult and it has no object. The sentence does not seem complete since we dont know what it is that he wants. NOTA BENE: vult is from the irregular verb volo, velle

COMPLEMENTARY INFINITIVE
verb

Caesar vult
object verb volo, velle- to want to

Caesar cibum vult

in nitive verb

Caesar edere vult.

object of in nitive in nitive verb

Davus cibum edere vult.

In the second sentence Caesar wants food the main verb is vult and its object is cibum. Notice how the noun changes from cibus to cibum when it is the object of a verb. In the third sentence Caesar wants to eat the main verb is vult and its object is the verb edere. Notice how the verb uses the in nitive form to complement the main verb. It is the 2nd form in the dictionary edo, edere In the nal sentence Caesar wants to eat food the main verb is vult, edere is the complement in nitive, and cibum is not the object of vult but rather of edere.

The complementary in nitive is when a verb ful lls the sense of another verb. For example: I want to sleep the in nitive to sleep completes the sentence. Without the in nitive to sleep the sentence I want does not make much sense. An in nitive in English is the form of the verb with to in front. For example to be or not to be and to jump. Latin expresses the in nitive with the -re ending that we see in the dictionary entry . For example amo, amare and porto, portare. Amare is to love and portare is to carry. The term complementary comes from the Latin word complere which means to ll up. It should not be confused with the English wordcomplimentary which means either free of charge or nicety. Some imporant words that take the in nitive are: possum to be able to, soleo to be accustomed to, volo to want to, debeo to ought to and cupio to desire to. In the rst sentence Caesar wants the main verb is vult and it has no object. The sentence does not seem complete since we dont know what it is that he wants. NOTA BENE: vult is from the irregular verb volo, velle

COMPLEMENTARY INFINITIVE
verb

Caesar vult
object verb volo, velle- to want to

Caesar cibum vult

in nitive verb

Caesar edere vult.

object of in nitive in nitive verb

Davus cibum edere vult.

In the second sentence Caesar wants food the main verb is vult and its object is cibum. Notice how the noun changes from cibus to cibum when it is the object of a verb. In the third sentence Caesar wants to eat the main verb is vult and its object is the verb edere. Notice how the verb uses the in nitive form to complement the main verb. It is the 2nd form in the dictionary edo, edere In the nal sentence Caesar wants to eat food the main verb is vult, edere is the complement in nitive, and cibum is not the object of vult but rather of edere.