Unlike the original National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy

Hi Sid,

Thanks for posting your doubt here.

You do ask a very interesting question. Let me try to clarify your doubts without creating any further confusions.

The "to verb" or "the infinitive" (for those who prefer jargon" is an action phrase that grammatically acts as a noun. This is the reason why we can use "to err" or for that matter several other "to verb" phrases as the Subject of a sentence. However, they are not the conventional noun, just like the verb-ing" nouns or "gerunds", as they also present some action. Only their grammatical form is Noun but essentially they are action words. This is the reason why we CANNOT use any pronoun, be it the regular pronouns or the Relative Pronouns. to refer to "to verbs". The regular pronouns and the Relative Pronouns ONLY refer to regular conventional noun entities.

So yes, you can call them nouns but just for the grammar sake. In functionality, they are actually action words. However, we cannot call the "to verbs" regular Verbs because they CANNOT have any tense. They are used in the same form in sentences written in past, perfect, or future tense. Again, grammatically they cannot be called Verbs because they are already classified as nouns. And an entity can only perform one grammatical function.

Now, is this knowledge vital for solving SC questions? IMHO, it's not. This is more of a grammar detail that is good to know but not something that will help solve SC problems correctly.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
SJ