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741. The infinitive is originally a verbal noun, expressing the simple idea of the verb. As a verb, it has voices and tenses; it has a subject (expressed or understood), which may define its number and person; it may have an object and other adjuncts, and, further, it is qualified by adverbs, and not by adjectives. It may have ἄν in a potential sense. It thus expresses the verbal idea with much greater definiteness than the corresponding substantives; compare, for example, πράττειν and πρᾶξαι with πρᾶξις, as expressions of the idea of doing.

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