Non-finite form
SAT glossary · Course Foundations
Definition
To run, running, approved — verb forms that cannot head a clause. Hard Boundaries items are built by piling participles into a sentence ('the measure approved by the committee') so the student working from feel mistakes a modifier for the real verb; the defense is to find the finite verbs first.
Non-finite form in plain English
Non-finite verb forms — like 'to run,' 'running,' or 'approved' — LOOK like verbs, but grammatically they can't act as the main verb holding up an independent clause on their own. Some of the hardest sentence-boundary questions are deliberately built by stacking several of these participle-style words into one sentence (like 'the measure approved by the committee') — which tempts a student who's just going by 'feel' into mistakenly treating one of these non-finite forms as if it were the sentence's real main verb. The reliable defense is to specifically hunt for the actual FINITE verbs (the ones that are genuinely tensed and match a subject) first, before assuming you've found the real verb.
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