Adjective-Infinitive Collocations

Adjective-Infinitive Collocations (a clear and practical guide for confident English)

English often sounds most natural when we don’t focus on single words, but on patterns. One extremely common and useful pattern is adjective + to-infinitive. Native speakers use it constantly to express feelings, opinions, difficulty, reactions, and behaviour — especially in speaking, essays, reviews, and reports. If you master this structure, your English will instantly sound more fluent and mature. In this lesson, we’ll explore the most important adjective-infinitive collocations, organised by meaning and use, with clear explanations and natural examples.

What is the adjective + to-infinitive structure?

We use this structure when an adjective describes:

a feeling or reaction
how easy or difficult something is
someone’s behaviour
a situation or outcome

Structure:

adjective + to + base verb

Compare:

Jill talks very fast, so we can’t follow her.
Jill is difficult to follow.

Both sentences are correct, but the second sounds more natural and advanced.

Adjectives expressing feelings and reactions

This pattern is very common after adjectives that describe emotions or personal reactions.

We are happy to meet you.
They were glad to help us.
I’m sorry to bother you so late.
She was surprised to hear the news.
Mark was embarrassed to admit his mistake.
Jane was sad to learn that her neighbour had died.
I’m proud to be part of this team.

These collocations are especially useful in emails, reviews, and speaking exams.

Describing difficulty or ease

We often use adjective + to-infinitive to say how easy, hard, or safe something is.

This exercise is hard to do.
Salsa is not an easy dance to learn.
That instruction manual is easy to follow.
It isn’t safe to go out alone at night.
The film was difficult to understand without subtitles.

This structure is very common in essays and reports, especially when evaluating ideas or experiences.

Adjective + noun + to-infinitive

In this pattern, the adjective describes the noun, and the infinitive explains its purpose or result.

You must follow certain rules to succeed in this business.
This is an important thing to remember.
We rented a lovely cottage to stay in during our holiday.
That’s a clever thing to say in an interview.
He left a short note to apologise.

Notice how the infinitive often explains why something exists.

Too + adjective + to-infinitive

We use too + adjective + to-infinitive to say that something is excessive and therefore prevents an action.

He was too tired to concentrate.
The box was too heavy to lift.
The dog was too small to climb onto the bed.
She was too upset to speak.
The room was too noisy to study properly.

Be careful: too usually carries a negative meaning, even if the adjective itself is positive.

It’s + adjective + of + person + to-infinitive

We use this pattern when commenting on someone’s behaviour.

Structure:

It is + adjective + of + person + to + verb

It was kind of you to remember my birthday.
It’s generous of James to share his food.
It was careless of him to leave the door unlocked.
It’s unfair of the teacher to cancel the test without warning.
It was silly of me to forget my keys again.

This structure is very natural in spoken English and informal writing.

The first / second / last / only + to-infinitive

We often use this pattern to describe order, uniqueness, or sequence.

John was the first to arrive at the meeting.
She was the only person to notice the mistake.
Ben was the last to leave the office.
He became the second runner to finish the race.
She was the next to speak during the discussion.

This structure is common in storytelling, reports, and formal writing.

Final tip for learners

If you want to sound more natural and confident, then stop translating word by word and start learning patterns like adjective + to-infinitive. They will help you express opinions clearly, describe situations more precisely, and score higher in B2 First and C1 Advanced writing and speaking tasks.

Adjective-Infinitive Collocations

Published by My Lingua Academy on 30 Oct 202430 Oct 2024