Studying Grammar for Translation purposes

Forms of the Infinitive

Active Passive

Indefinite Infinitive to take to be taken

Continuous Infinitive to be taking -

Perfect Infinitive to have taken to have been taken

Perfect Continuous Infinitive to have been taken -

The Use of the Infinitive

The function in the sentence Example Translation

1. Subject To be operated at once was all that she needed. Все, что ей было нужно, - это немедленная операция.

2.Predicative The only sensible thing is for you to stay in bed. Единственное, что для вас сейчас разумно, - оставаться в постели.

3. Subjective Predicative I was advised to visit a dentist at once. Мне посоветовали сразу же обратиться к стоматологу.

4. Objective Predicative He advised her to visit a dentist at once. Он посоветовал ей обратиться сразу же к стоматологу.

5. Predicate Why waste your time on this kind of treatment? И зачем тратить время на подобное лечение?

6. Part of a Compound Verbal Predicate He seemed to know all about this illness. Казалось, он знает все об этой болезни.

7. Object Margaret continued to visit Jack in hospital. Маргарет продолжала навещать Джека в больнице.

8. Adverbial modifier:

a) of purpose

b) of condition

c) of exception

d) of comparison

e) of consequence

f) of attending circumstances

I did my best to stop her.

To hear him tell such things, you would think he was mad.

There was nothing to do but operate on this woman.

He decided to consult the doctor than to be treated by this strange man.

His organism was too weak to make the transplanting of his kidney.

It was a quite house, with only a young nurse to take care of him.

Я сделал все возможное, чтобы остановить ее.

Если бы вы услышали, что он говорит, вы бы сочли его сумасшедшим.

Ничего не оставалось делать, как прооперировать эту женщину.

Он решил, что лучше обратиться к врачу, чем лечиться у этого странного человека.

Его организм был слишком слаб, чтобы делать пересадку почки.

В доме было тихо, и только молоденькая медсестра ухаживала за ним.

9. Attribute He found it a good idea to send this little girl for the doctor. Он решил, что мысль послать за доктором эту маленькую девочку, была неплохой.

10. Parenthesis To tell the truth, I’m sick and tired of this nonsense. По правде говоря, мне до смерти надоела вся эта чепуха.

1. Translate the text from English into Russian. Find the Infinitives and Infinitive Constructions and comment on their functions.

As medical science progresses, we are becoming an increasingly elderly society and, although living to a ripe old age can only be a good thing, it brings with it a large number of problems that we have yet to deal with properly. One such problem is that the burden of financing care for the elderly seems to be falling on a reduced percentage of the working population. The gradual but steady trend towards smaller families is likely to result in a smaller number of people to pay for the requirements of an increasingly elderly population. The services needed by the elderly appear to have stretched to breaking point. Nursing homes, homecare, meals on wheels and so on all need more investment if we wish our elderly to live as fulfilled and independent a life as possible.

Young people today are encouraged to start saving with personal pension schemes as early as possible to ensure an adequately financed retirement, since it is predicted that state pension levels in the future will not be enough to guarantee a continuation of the lifestyle they have become accustomed to.

But we still have to cope with an expanding older population who are discovering too late that the steps they had taken to guarantee an income for their later years were not sufficient. Obviously, the pressure on public funds to subsidize this shortfall is enormous.