Gerunds-and-Infinitives

Englishlearnershavedifficultywithgerundsandinfinitives.Agerundisthe–ingformofaverbthatfunctionsthesameasanoun.Forexample,Runningisfun.Inthissentence,runningisthegerund.Itactsjustlikeanoun.Theinfinitiveformofaverbappearseitherasthebasicform(withnomarking)orwiththewordto.Forexample,youcansayImightruntothestoreorIliketorun.Inthissentence,torunistheinfinitive.EverydayGrammar-GerundsandInfinitivesItisdifficultforEnglishlearnerstoknowwhethertouseagerundoraninfinitiveafteraverb.Here'sanexample.Whichsentenceiscorrect?Sentenceone:Isuggestedgoingtodinner.Sentencetwo:Isuggestedtogotodinner.Sentenceone,withthegerund,iscorrect.Isuggestedgoingtodinner.Why?Youcanonlyuseagerundaftertheverbsuggest.Let'stakethewordlike.YoucansayIlikerunningorIliketorun.Bothsentenceshavethesamemeaning.Youcanuseeitheragerundoraninfinitiveafterlike.Nowlet'stryenjoy.Wecansay,Ienjoyrunning.Butwecannotsay,Ienjoytorun.Why?Onlyagerundcanfollowtheverbenjoy.Areyouconfusedyet?You'renotalone.GerundandinfinitivesconfuseevenveryadvancedEnglishlearners.Basically,someverbsarefollowedbygerunds,someverbsarefollowedbyinfinitives,andsomeverbscanbefollowedbygerundsorinfinitives.Nativespeakersdonotthinkaboutthedifference.ButEnglishlearnershavetomemorizethehundredsofdifferentverbcombinations.Hereareafewtips.Tipnumberone:youalmostalwaysfindagerundafterapreposition.Forexample,Sheisafraidofflying.Inthissentenceofistheprepositionandflyingisthegerund.YoucannotsaySheisafraidoftofly.Aninfinitivecannotbetheobjectofapreposition,onlyagerundcan.Youcouldsay,Sheisafraidtofly,butinthissentence,theprepositionofisgone.Tipnumbertwo:Whenyouaretalkingaboutanactivity,youusuallyuseagerund.Forexample,Istoppedsmoking.Youcandescribemanyactivitiesbyusinggobeforeagerund.Let'sgoshopping,orWewentskiing.Let'sseehowmuchyouknow.Trytocompletethesesentencesusingtheverbstudy.Ready?I'llreadthefirstpartofthesentenceandyoufinishit.Ienjoy...(studying)Iconsidered...(studying)Imanaged...(tostudy)Ihope...(tostudy)Isuggested...(studying)Ilike......(studying)or...(tostudy)Thisisonlyasimpleintroductiontoacomplicatedgrammartopic.Thereisnoquickandeasywaytolearngerundsandinfinitives.IttakesyearsofpracticeandfamiliaritywiththeEnglishlanguage.NexttimeyoureadorlistentoaVOALearningEnglishstory,payattentiontouseofgerundsandinfinitives.Overtime,youwillbegintoheartherightverbcombination.Belowisahelpfulreferencelistforusinggerundsandinfinitives.I'mJonathanEvans.AndI'mAshleyThompson.AdamBrockwrotethisstoryforLearningEnglish.Dr.JillRobbinswastheeditor.______________________________________________________________WordsinThisStorygerund-n.anEnglishnounformedfromaverbbyadding-inginfinitive-n.thebasicformofaverb;usuallyusedwithtoexceptwithmodalverbslikeshouldandcouldandcertainotherverbslikeseeandhearpreposition-n.awordorgroupofwordsthatisusedwithanoun,pronoun,ornounphrasetoshowdirection,location,ortime,ortointroduceanobjectNowit'syourturn.Inthecommentsection,writeonesentencethatusesaverbfollowedbyagerundoraninfinitive.We'llrespondwithfeedbackaboutyourusage.______________________________________________________________Onlyagerundcanfollowtheseverbs:admit,advise,avoid,beusedto,can'thelp,can'tstand,consider,deny,discuss,dislike,endup,enjoy,feellike,finish,forget,getusedto,giveup,goon,havedifficulty,haveproblems,havetrouble,imagine,it'snouse,it'sworthwhile,keep,lookforwardto,mention,mind,miss,recommend,remember,quit,spendtime,stop,suggest,understand,wastetime,workatEitheragerundoraninfinitivecanfollowtheseverbs,andthereisnochangeinmeaningbegin,continue,hate,intend,like,love,prefer,startEitheragerundoraninfinitivecanfollowtheseverbs,butthemeaningmaychange:forget,remember,stopAninfinitiveoftenfollowsthesecommonverbs:afford,agree,appear,arrange,ask,care,decide,demand,expect,fail,forget,hope,learn,manage,mean,offer,plan,prepare,pretend,promise,refuse,remember,seem,stop,volunteer,wait,want,wishAnounorpronounandaninfinitivefollowtheseverbsadvise,allow,ask,cause,challenge,command,convince,expect,forbid,force,hire,instruct,invite,order,pay,permit,program,remind,teach,tell,urge,want,warn