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CAN U EXPLAIN FINITE & NON-FINITE & GIVE EXAMPLES

Examine the following sentences:

• I drove to the concert.
• He broke the vase.
• She will take it off your hands soon.

The verbs in the above sentences are ‘drove’, ‘broke’ and ‘take’. These are finite verbs; verbs whose form is governed by the subject of the sentence. What this means is that these verbs change their form depending on person (first person, second person, third person, singular/plural) and tense. For example, ‘drove’ is the past tense of ‘drive’. Thus, if sentence were to be in the present tense, it would be I drive.... Similarly, if ‘I’ were to be replaced by ‘he’, it would be He drives. Finite verbs can form independent clauses, i.e. clauses that can work as complete sentences. 

Non-finite verbs, on the other hand, are those that do not change form based upon the subject. These are of three types:

1. Participle – this includes the past and present participles of verbs, which function as adjectives (the dying man, the sleeping giant, etc).
2. Gerund – this refers to verbs (in their –ing form) that function as nouns (the writingon the wall, exercising is a necessary activity for continued good health).
3. Infinitive – the verb in its basic form, often but not necessarily preceded by ‘to’, functioning as noun (to finish the task without any more hitches was his goal), adjective (I’m sorry, I have much work to do at the moment), or adverb (he called to discuss the matter).