In the following sentence, what kind of phrase is " to play basketball"?
"Porpoises have been to play basketball."
a. prepositional
b. participial
c. infinitive
d. gerund
My guess is b.
No. Don't guess.
http://www.grammar.com/infinitive-phrase
To determine the kind of phrase "to play basketball" is in the given sentence, we need to analyze its structure.
In this case, "to play basketball" is functioning as an infinitive phrase.
An infinitive is the base or root form of a verb preceded by the word "to" (e.g. to play, to eat, to read).
An infinitive phrase consists of the infinitive verb along with any accompanying modifiers or objects. In this case, "to play basketball" is the infinitive phrase, where "to play" is the infinitive verb and "basketball" is the object.
Therefore, the correct answer is c. infinitive.