What does infinitive mean in Spanish?

Answer 1

It just mean "to...." do something.

For example bailar is an infinitive (anything with an AR, ER, & IR ending are infinitives)

Bailar - "To dance"

Cantar - "To sing"

Escuchar - "To listen"

Ex. Yo escucho la musica. (I hear the music)

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Basically it's just a verb.

An infinitive is the most basic form of a verb. In Spanish these verbs always end in -er, -ir, or -ar. The best way to describe an infinitive is a verb without a tense.

An example of an infinitive would be comer (notice the -er ending), comer would be "to eat" it does not have a tense. (ie. Present Indicative, Past, Present, etc.)

The way you give a verb a tense is by adding an ending, such as we would add -ing to the end of our verbs. But that explanation is another can of worms.

Answer 2

You use the infinitive form when it is the second verb in a sentence clause. Example: Puedo usar un diccionario, pero no lo quiero hacer ahora. "I can use a dictionary, but I don´t want to do it now." Notice that in each clause of the sentence, the second verb is the infinitive form - usar and hacer.