The following sentences each contain one finite verb (underlined) and multiple nonfinite verbs (in bold):
The proposal has been intensively examined today.
What did they want to have done about that?
Someone tried to refuse to accept the offer.
Coming downstairs, she saw the man running away.
I am trying to get the tickets.
In the above sentences, been, examined and done are past participles, want, have, refuse, accept and get are infinitives, and coming, running and trying are present participles (for alternative terminology, see the sections below).
In languages like English that have little inflectional morphology, certain finite and nonfinite forms of a given verb are often identical, e.g.
a. They laugh a lot. - Finite verb (present tense) in bold
b. They will laugh a lot. - Nonfinite infinitive in bold
a. Tom tried to help. - Finite verb (past tense) in bold
b. Tom has tried to help. - Nonfinite participle in bold
Despite the fact that the verbs in bold have the same outward appearance, the first in each pair is finite and the second is nonfinite. To distinguish the finite and nonfinite uses, one has to consider the environments in which they appear. Finite verbs in English usually appear as the leftmost verb in a verb catena.[2] For details of verb inflection in English, see English verbs.