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Infinitives with causitive verbs bid, command, order

English Language Learners Asked on November 19, 2021

1). I bade him go.

2). I ordered/commanded him to go.

Till now I have thought bid, order and Command have almost same meaning except some nuances.

But why Bare infinitive is used for bid and to-infinitive is used for order, command?

One Answer

You are confusing "meaning" with "grammar". As you correctly observe "bid" and "order" have a similar meaning in this context, but different grammar. There is no strong reason why.

Note that this sense of bid is now dated, or even archaic, and so shouldn't be used except in fixed expressions like "bade farewell". There is a relatively small list of verbs that take a bare infinitive: "bid, dare, make, see, hear, let" and even among these, a to-infinitive is sometimes possible (dared to go, but durst go) In the past there were more verbs like this, now the bare infinitive only holds on in some very common verbs (like made) and a few archaic verbs (like bade)

Answered by James K on November 19, 2021

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