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Tool 27: When there is no root helper verb and no subject, the word that looks like a
root verb might be a root verbal (RVbl). Now we've already learned about CVbls, this is
telling us about RVbls, so writ this one down and I'll show you some examples.
So what is an RVbl? Well, again, a verbal is something that looks like a verb, but does
not act like a verb in that sentence. So let's see a few examples of this.
First: Hate is the opposite of love. Well, you may say that hate is a verb. I can hate
someone. But in this case, Hate is the subject of the sentence. Is is the verb of the sentence.
And we've also got a prepositional phrase here, don't forget. So in this case, Hate,
our subject is a verbal. what kind of verbal? A root verbal, RVbl, because it doesn't have
any ending on it. It's not hating, not hated, just hate.
Okay. I want to go to the concert. I is the subject here. What do I do? I want. And now
we've got a preposition, "to." To go, and to the concert, so two prepositional phrases
here. In the first one, "go" we know is a verb - I go. So, again, in this case the P
is to -- the preposition is to - the OP is go, or that OP is also an RVbl, root verbal.
So go here is an object of the preposition, it's also a root verbal. In other words, go
is a verb, but it's not acting like a verb in this sentence. It's a verbal. And what
kind of verbal is it? It has no ending, It's not "going" so it's not a CVbl, it's just
plain "go" so it's an RVbl. This, by the way, this construction "to go".
To plus an RVbl is also what we can an infinitive in English. So to go, or to love or to write,
or to eat. Anything "to" plus a Root verbal. To plus RVbl: that's what we call an infinitive.
So if you like, you can either label this as P and then OP/RVbl, that's one way to label
it, or the other way to label it is just to say it is an Inf or infinitive. That's a sort
of shorthand for preposition plus an RVbl. So that's two ways to label what's called
an infinitive in English.