USING ” TO + INFINITIVE” TO EXPRESS PURPOSE OF AN ACTION IN ENGLISH
There are various ways to express purpose or reason in English. One of them is ” To”
We can use ” to” to declare our goal or purpose. We can say that it is used to explain why an action is done.
Namely;
- “to” uses with infinitive verb which does not show any tense.
- “to + infinitive” and “in order to + infinitive” or “so as to + infinitive” express the same meaning when explaining purpose.
- “to” is used before a verb to make the to-infinitive form.
- ” to” can be used at the beginning of a sentence. ( “t0” with infinitive verb can come before main clause ).
An Action + To + Infinitive Verb
You can see many examples related to using ” to” below;
Examples:
- I will lock the door to prevent theft.
- The students studied very hard to pass the exams.
- The teacher got permission from the principal to take the children to the museum.
- Marry listened to him carefully to understand him.
- She is going to go to England to learn English.
- To get an outside line, you have to dial 9 first.
- My friend went home to do her homework.
- The doctor completed the preparations to operate the patient.
- The parent is calling the teacher to ask some questions about her son.
ATTENTION 1:
When we want to make infinitive clause negative or negative infinitive ( in other words, the negative form of “not to” ).
Examples:
- He changed his way not to see her.
- John said a lot of excuses not to finish the project
NOTE:
Please pay attention to the position of “not” in the structure. “not” comes before “to”.
ATTENTION 2:
“to” can be used at the beginning of a sentence.
Example:
- To get a passport, firstly you should fill out the form on the website.
For using “in order to” to express purpose in english click here
For using “so as to” to express purpose in english click here
For “to” vs ” in order to” vs “so as to” click here
For using “so that” to express purpose in english click here
For using “in order that” to express purpose in english click here
For differences between “so that” and “in order that” to express purpose in english click here