A grammar question....
By Margarita
@Meramar (2695)
February 10, 2019 6:27am CST
One of the books I am studying is called "A grammar companion to Lengua Inglesa I (English language I). There is a paragraph reffering to finite clause and says as following: "A finite clause is one whose verb phrase has a finite verb as its first or only word, i.e. a verb which has present or past tense. A non-finite clause is a clause whose verb element is a non-finite verb phrase. Non-finite verb phrases consist of elements not having present or past tense, such as the -ing participle, the -ed participle or the infinitive."
If you don't mind, someone could give me a sample for a finite and a non-finite phrase? Thank you very much indeed.
5 people like this
4 responses
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
10 Feb 19
I was never taught about finite and non-finite clauses in my day. I don't think that they'd been invented 
This page may help (notice that it talks about primary and secondary verbs rather than finite and non-finite verbs! Same thing - different names!)
This page may help (notice that it talks about primary and secondary verbs rather than finite and non-finite verbs! Same thing - different names!)
https://www.grammar-quizzes.com/sent-nonfinite.html
3 people like this
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
10 Feb 19
@Mavic123456 So have I, as a matter of fact! As I said, I don't think that grammarians in my day had named all the finer points of clauses. Probably, it's all the fault of Noam Chomsky who, amongst other things, was one of the first to approach language from an analytical viewpoint.
I think that the only valid reason for knowing that there are finite and non-finite clauses is in the field of translation (particularly machine translation) where it would be essential to know how to express an idea in a language which doesn't have such a construct.
2 people like this
@Mavic123456 (21898)
• Thailand
10 Feb 19
Thanks Mr. Owlwings. i have learned something here.
2 people like this
