The infinitive is the root of the verb. In English, we have the infinitive form as the word "to" [I used the quotation marks only to separate the word from others] plus the verb. The infinitive is the pure form of the verb, that is the verb is not changed by time, number, mood or person. An example of infitive use is "to speak." The only word I can immediately think of that does not have an infinitive form is the verb "can" as in "I can speak." We do not have the infinitive "to can." We have a bird called a Toucan, but that's a different form of speech. The word "can" seems to be an auxiliary or helping verb.
The Spanish infinitive has three forms and is made up of two parts. The first part is called the stem and it has the form of verb+ending. Spanish has three endings; -ar, -er-ir. Those are easy to remember for what are the vowels we were taught? a, e, i, o, u. What are the first three vowels? a, e, i. Do you have it? Three endings, all beginning with a vowel, the first three vowels and ending with an r. Think endings are r and you have it. Examples:
Spanish -ar infinitive
Hablar - to speak
Spanish -er infinitive
Comer - to eat
Spanish -ir infinitive
Recibir - to receive
Stephen
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