Verb Catenation in English

This page is an introduction to the grammatical topic of verb catenation (i.e. verb chaining) in English. It has examples of the types of verbs that can chain together, as well as the difficulties of this feature of English grammar for language learners.

Introduction

Verb catenation is the sequence or chaining together of verbs in a clause, starting with a main, finite verb and followed by another verb in one of its nonfinite forms as the main verb's complement.

The nonfinite forms are an infinitive (with or without "to") or an -ing form. The -ing form is the present participle of a verb, which when used as a noun is typically called a gerund in traditional English learning materials.

Note: In most cases, there is only one nonfinite verb following the main verb. But the chaining of further nonfinite verbs is possible. An example from A Student's Introduction to English Grammar is She seems to want to stop trying to avoid meeting him (page 215).

Examples of catenative verbs

The English verbs that can catenate include the modal verbs (can, may, must, should, will,...), causative verbs (make, let, have, get,...), verbs of perception (see, hear, watch, feel,...) and various other such as want, need, like, love, hate, begin, start, continue, prefer, try, help, decide,... .

Verbs that cannot catenate or chain include believe, imagine, know, arrive, walk, fall, own, belong, realize, consist, comment, and many more. Some of these verbs are intransitive, and others are followed by a noun phrase or a content clause. For example, She owns an expensive car or He realized that he would never be a professional athlete.

Why catenation is difficult

Catenation is difficult for English learners because there are three potential nonfinite verb forms to choose from. These are the bare infinitive, the to-infinitive and the -ing form.

Firstly, if the main verb is a modal, then the choice of nonfinite form is relatively straightforward. It has to be the bare infinitive. For example. You must not forget to call when you get home.

Secondly, if the main verb is a verb of perception, then both the bare infinitive and the -ing form are possible. For example, I heard him play/playing the guitar and I saw her cross/crossing the bridge. But each of the two nonfinite verb forms in such sentences has a potentially different implication. Click for more on this.

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Thirdly, if the main verb is neither a modal, nor a verb of perception, then the choice of the nonfinite verb is more unpredictable. It could be either a to infinitive, or a bare infinitive or an -ing form. And for some main verbs, two of the nonfinite forms may be possible with no or little difference in meaning between them.

For these non-modal and non-perception verbs, there are no particularly useful rules to help decide which of the three non-finite forms should be used. The grammar of each of these verbs has to be learned individually.

For example, you just have to learn that the verbs like and enjoy (which are virtual synonyms) have different nonfinite forms. Both I like to dance and I like dancing are possible, but only I enjoy dancing is. Ungrammatical is I enjoy to dance.

Examples of catenative constructions

In the following example sentences the main (finite) verb is shown in blue and the nonfinite verb in red.

1. Infinitive with "to"

2. Bare Infinitive (without "to")

Gerund (-ing form)

4. Either the infinitive with "to" or the gerund

5. Noun phrase Some modern grammarians* include single-word pronouns in the category of noun phrase (NP). This analysis is followed in the example sentences here. *See the reference at the end of this article. before the "to-infinitive"

6. Noun phrase before the bare infinitive

Note: The sentences in sections 5. and 6. above are examples of complex catenations. The other example sentences above are simple catenations. (See page 215 of A Student's Introduction to English Grammar.)

7. "To + -ing" form

A common example of a "to + -ing" form construction is:

This construction does not, in fact, meet the definition of catenation as "a chain of verbs starting a main, finite verb and followed by one or more nonfinite verbs", since what follows the finite verb look forward (to) is not a nonfinite verb form but a noun phrase (traditionally called a gerund). See the note below for more on this.

But these non-catenative examples are listed here for their similarity to the true catenative constructions. Furthermore, it is important that learners understand that each English verb has its own complementation. This means that verbs should learned with their grammar as well as their meaning and pronunciation, among other characteristics.

Here are a few similar constructions:

Note: The "to" in I look forward to meeting you is not the same as the "to" before an infinitive. Here the "to" is a preposition followed by a complementation (in this case, a noun phrase headed by the gerund, i.e. verbal noun, meeting.)

The "to" in, for example, I want to go home, on the other hand, is an infinitive marker.

Conclusion

Catenation is an important aspect of English grammar, not least because of the large number of sentences in spoken and written English that contain examples of it. This article provides an overview of the six basic catenative constructions, and recommends the use of a good dictionary in order to make the correct choice of the nonfinite verb form in each case where the main verb requires one.

More resources

Elsewhere in this grammar section there is more on catenation in the page on what, in traditional English language teaching, is called the Gerund. This page has links to other resources on the topic, including more quizzes and videos.

And here is a video lesson project on how to decide: gerund or infinitive?.

A good way to learn the nonfinite forms of the common catenative main verbs is to do a quiz on them. There are four such quizzes on this site at: Quiz 1 · Quiz 2 · Quiz 3· Quiz 4.

Reference

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