Giving conditions

On the previous page we saw how we use infinitive clauses to give reasons.

Infinitive clauses can also create conditions, which are the requirements that make an event possible or impossible.

Look at each of these snippets and see if you can find the 'possible event' and the condition that makes it possible or impossible:

Mom was making August’s lunch (American cheese on whole-wheat bread, soft enough for Auggie to eat).

Wonder(2012)

Suddenly I'm too chicken to go to a café?

Does My Head Look Big in This?(2007)

If you look carefully, you'll see the infinitive clause ("to eat", "to go") turns an adjective group (“soft enough”, “too chicken”) into the condition for an event (Auggie eating the bread only if it's soft enough; me going to a cafe only if I'm not too chicken).

These words determine whether a condition is ‘positive’ (“Auggie can eat the bread if it’s soft”) or ‘negative’ (“I can’t go to a cafe if I’m chicken”).

Here are some variations using "suddenly I'm too chicken" as a base.

First, a negative condition:

Suddenly I’m too tired to care about the stegosaurus in the swimming pool.

Write a similar sentence using 'too' to show an event is not possible.

Let's flip to a positive condition:

Suddenly I’m loud and angry enough for Elliot to pay attention.

Write a similar sentence using 'enough' to show an event is possible.

We could probably do an entire lesson just on infinitive clauses. They have a few other tricks up their sleeves (one of which we look at on this page of the verb groups lesson).

But you now have the tools you need to recognise them in the wild, and you’ve seen a couple of their main uses (giving reasons and conditions).

Complex sentences