What is "catenative verb"

n. An English verb able to be immediately followed by the full infinitive or bare infinitive, or gerund, as in “I beg to differ”, where beg is catenative.

In the English language and others, catenative verbs are verbs which can be followed within the same clause by another verb. This second subordinated verb can be in either the infinitive (both full and bare) or gerund forms. An example appears in the sentence He deserves to win the cup, where "deserve" is a catenative verb which can be followed directly by another verb, in this case a to-infinitive construction.

Some catenative verbs are used in the passive voice followed by an infinitive: You are forbidden to smoke in here.

These verbs are called "catenative" because of their ability to form chains in catenative constructions. For example: ''We need to go to the tennis court to help Jim to get some practice before the game.

A use of a catenative verb can be masked by hendiadys, that is the two parts are joined by an and, as in come and get it rather than come to get it.