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I have encountered this sentence:
Ich habe vorsichtig zu ergründen gesucht, wie er wirklich ist.
I understand the general meaning but what is "zu ergründen" doing? I need to understand how this sentence got built so I can do the same or something similar in the future. Please explain the structure of this sentence to me. Literal translation to English would help.
In addition to other uses of zu with an infinitive, the zu + inifinitive construction can also appear with another verb, which is occasionally referred to as the semi-auxilliary verb. The main role of the semi-auxilliary verb is to change the meaning of the infinitive in some way, much as the modal auxilliary verbs do. When used in this way, the semi-auxilliary verb encloses the infinitive.
Example:
Sie hat uns zu verstehen gegeben, daß sie morgen kommt.
The book, Hammer's German Grammar and Usage by Martin Durrell (ISBN 0-8442-2208-9) has an extended discussion of the various different forms of the zu + infinitive construction, including the kind of infinitive clause that you provide. The example above is taken from Durrell.
