arrrrgh. i'm confused! bear with me, there's a question here somewhere; i'm just not sure what i want to ask....

i managed to wade my way through participles and gerunds but seem to be at an impasse with infinitives. as i understand it, infinitive phrases function as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. that is, they are verb-like creatures that don't function as verbs (aka verbals). or so i thought until i read a passing comment about bare infinitives.

as far as i can tell, the bare infinitive is the base form of a verb without a 'to'--just like you'd find in the dictionary. furthermore, the grammar bible, the chicago manual of style, and fowler's modern english usage appear to offer the following criteria for using the bare infinitive:

1. use it in an 'active voice' sentence

2a. use it with 'semi-modal' verbs like bid, dare, feel, hear, help, let, make, need, see, and watch.

e.g. (from the grammar bible): They bade us depart with all due haste; I felt her heart beat; We heard teh birds whistle a merry tune; Why not let him cook dinner? The guards made the crowd disperse peacefully; I saw you hide in the bushes; The detective watched him cross the street

2c. use it after idiomatic expressions like had better

e.g. (from Fowler's): I had better wait.

2a. (here's where i'm confused) use it with auxilary verbs like can, may, shall, should, will, would, and must.

e.g. She might spot the Loch Ness monster. I shall fly with Betty.

Soooo...aren't "spot" and "fly" functioning as main verbs here? Is the to-less infinitive not a verbal? I'm sorry, I don't really know what to ask...I'm just confused....

-andrew