Question

How is the infinitive phrase used in the sentence, "He wants to tell you about his day."?

Answer 1

It is used as a direct object.

Explanation:

To begin with, what is an infinitive ?

• An infinitive is "to + a verb". In infinitive phrase begins with the infinitive, and contains any complements or modifiers.

So where is it in our sentence? I highlighted it for you:

He wants `"to tell you about his day"`.

To find what part of speech it is, let's find the subject and verb of the sentence:

`stackrel("subject")overbrace"He" stackrel("verb")overbrace("wants")` `stackrel("infinitive phrase") overbrace("to tell you about his day")`.

Now ask yourself: "What does he want?"
The answer: "To tell you about his day".

Since the infinitive phrase "to tell you about his day" answers the question "what", it is a direct object. It is receiving the "want" of the subject he.

This is a good video on direct objects: