Infinitive Constructions with the Perfect Infinitive
One last remark about infinitive constructions: In English, we potentially have a variety of infinitive constructions to draw on, to specify the time of the action with relation to the action in the main verb:
I want to go, I want to have gone, I need to be going, I would have liked to have been going
In German there are only two tenses available for infinitive construction, the present tense and the perfect.
lachen ... gelacht haben
fahren ... gefahren sein
If the action in the infinitive construction takes place at the same time as the action of the main verb one uses the present infinitive:
Er versucht, nach Berlin zu kommen.
Er wollte versuchen, nach Berlin zu kommen.
Er hat versucht, nach Berlin zu kommen.
If the action in the infinitive construction took place before the action in the main clause one uses the perfect infinitive:
Er erinnert sich daran, das Buch gelesen zu haben.
Er konnte sich nicht daran erinnern, das Buch gelesen zu haben.
Er hat sich nicht daran erinnert, mich in Berlin gesehen zu haben.
Notice that the zu comes before the haben of this two-word infinitive.
Just because of their meaning the following verbs are quite often followed by the infintive perfect:
| bekennen | to confess |
| gestehen | to confess |
| bedauern | to regret |
| versichern | to assure |
| erklären | to declare |
| bereuen | to regret, to repent |