<p>The clouds began to rain in the afternoon.</p>
<p>To rain is an infinitive. Infinitive can act as nouns(subject, object etc)</p>
<p>What began? (to rain) began
Is (to rain) an object in this sentence ?</p>
<p>I think the object is clouds.</p>
<p>i asked myself “what began to rain”…what is receiving the action and clouds fits.</p>
<p>Clouds is the subject. To rain is the direct object.</p>
<p>The verb is began.</p>
<p>The clouds did the beginning; they are the subject.</p>
<p>What did they begin? They began to rain; to rain is the direct object.</p>
<p>Rain is the object.</p>
<p>Think of it like a mathematical input and output table.</p>
<p>What came in? Clouds.</p>
<p>x ----> Clouds</p>
<p>What came out? Rain</p>
<p>y ----> Rain</p>
<p>The object is something that is receiving the action from the subject</p>
<p>Subject:Clouds
Verb: Began
“to rain” and “in the afternoon” are prepositional phrases
rain and afternoon are the objects of the preposition so they can’t be the ones to do anything, its clouds that does the doing</p>
<p>“In the afternoon” is a prepositional phrase.</p>
<p>“To rain” is not. As has been said above, it is an infinitive.</p>
<p>A prepositional phase must include a preposition followed by a noun.</p>
<p>“In the afternoon” “in the” is the preposition, and “afternoon” is the noun.</p>
<p>“To rain” is a infinitive form of raining. “to xxxx” is always infinitive.</p>
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<p>If xxxx is a verb. If xxxx is a noun (e.g., “to Germany” or “to school”), then it’s a prepositional phrase.</p>
<p>Thank you everybody, all your explanations cleared my confusions.</p>
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<p>You know what I meant lol. The basic structure of a infinitive form is “to xxxx”. But yes, to xxxx if “xxxx” is a noun doesn’t mean it’s infinitive.</p>
<p>“To California”
“To Ohio”</p>
<p>Nothingto, I did strongly suspect that was what you meant. </p>
<p>But the teacher in me couldn’t leave that just out there. I wasn’t trying to one-up you, particularly. I was worried about some reader who didn’t know what you meant, who might come along later and conclude, erroneously, that to + XXXX always constitutes an infinitive.</p>
<p>what the hell was i thinking. this ear infection of mine is really taking a toll on my brain</p>
<p>Wow almost everyone here is wrong.</p>
<p>The clouds began to rain in the afternoon.</p>
<p>The clouds = subject
began = main verb
to rain = complementary infinitive
in the afternoon = prepositional phrase</p>
<p>D’oh!</p>
<p>Sheep, I stand corrected.</p>
<p>@ sheep . I dont understand. Do you mean a subject complement ?
Subject complements must come after a LINKING VERB, but BEGAN is not a linking verb.When I tried to replace BEGAN with WERE, the sentence didnt make sense.</p>
<p>The clouds were to rain… Unlogical
Also what is a complementary infinitive ?</p>
<p>Somebody EXPLAIN IT !!!</p>
<p>^
I know that BEGAN can SOMETIMES act as a LINKING VERB, but not ALWAYS.
The test to determine whether began is a LINKING VERB or no: is to replace BEGAN with a verb (to be).</p>
<p>Bump helppppppppppppppppppppppp</p>
<p>Just Google “complementary infinitive.”</p>
<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC App</p>
<p>Everyone wanted to go.</p>
<p>Is (to go) also a complementary infinitive.</p>
<p>@sikorsky
I tried googling it but latin infinitives keep appearing</p>