You are lucky _____ in the 20th century.
- (a)by being born
- (b)to have been born
- (c)for being born
- (d)to have born
Correct — B, to have been born. 'Lucky' is followed by a to-infinitive; the birth happened before the luck is being spoken of, which calls for the perfect infinitive 'to have ...'; and being born is something done to a person, which calls for the passive 'been born'. Put together they give 'You are lucky to have been born in the 20th century.'
- (a)by being born — 'Lucky' is not followed by 'by'; the adjective takes an infinitive, and 'by' with an -ing form would state the means by which something was achieved.
- (c)for being born — 'For' with an -ing form gives the reason for praise or blame — thanked for coming, punished for lying — and does not fit an adjective of good fortune.
- (d)to have born — This drops the passive 'been'. 'Born' cannot follow 'have' on its own in this sense, and the form would have to be 'to have been born'.
Adjectives such as lucky, glad, sorry and fortunate take a to-infinitive, and the perfect form of that infinitive is used when the event came earlier than the moment being spoken of.
Testing the parts one at a time settles it. The event is over, so 'to be born' becomes 'to have been born'; and since nobody bears themselves, the passive is required. 'Born' and 'borne' come from the same verb, but 'borne' is kept for the other senses, as in 'she has borne the pain'.
- A perfect infinitive is 'to have' plus a past participle, and it places the event earlier than the main verb.
- 'Be born' is passive in form and has no active use in this sense.
- 'Borne' is the participle of 'bear' in its other meanings — carried, endured, produced.
- Dropping 'been' and leaving an incomplete perfect infinitive.
Asked as a blank-filling item testing the form of the infinitive after an adjective.
They had promised to delivered (a) / the bags before mid-March (b) / to enable us to inaugurate the shop. (c) / No error (d)
- (a) They had promised to delivered
- (b) the bags before mid-March
- (c) to enable us to inaugurate the shop.
- (d) No error
Answer(a) They had promised to delivered
Same skill — building the infinitive correctly after the word that governs it. There 'to' must be followed by the plain form 'deliver' and not 'delivered'; here 'to have' must be completed with 'been born'.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the phrase that best fills the blank — She is fortunate ____ by such a fine teacher in her school days.
- (a)to be taught
- (b)to have been taught
- (c)by being taught
- (d)to have taught
Answer(b) to have been taught — the teaching is over, so the perfect passive infinitive is needed.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the phrase that best fills the blank — He was glad ____ the prize before he left the country.
- (a)to receive
- (b)to have received
- (c)for receiving
- (d)to have receive
Answer(b) to have received — the event came earlier than the gladness being described.