Gerunds and Infinitves

...and what Precedes them

Gerunds and infinitives are forms of verbs that act like nouns.

Ali quit smoking in 1977.

He just decided to quit one day.

A gerund is a verb + -ing. An infinitive is to + the verb.

In both the examples above, the gerund and the infinitive are the objects of the verbs in the sentence. However, as noun substitutes, gerunds and infinitives can also be the subject of a sentence.

Smoking is hard habit to give up.

To quit takes a lot of will power.

This lesson will focus primarily on verbs that precede infinitives and gerunds when they are used as objects in a sentence.

Some common verbs are always followed by a gerund:

Jeannie admitted taking the money from the desk.

The teacher considered calling the police.

Jeannie said she was so embarrassed that she felt like dying.

The teacher finally said she would recommend giving Jeannie a light punishment.

Some verbs are always followed by infinitives.

The president said he aimed to bring down taxes.

He asked Congress to pass a tax reduction bill.

The president's party consented to lower the taxes.

However, the opposition refused to cooperate.

The president promised to fight for lower taxes in the next term.

Some verbs can be followed by either a gerund or an infinitive.

Edina's husband, Bob, began taking cooking lessons last month.

Soon he began to try out all his new creations on her.

Edina said she likes eating as much as Bob likes to cook.

She loves to sample his new recipes and she loves not cooking herself.

However, she told me she regrets eating so much rich food.

She's going to try eating less of his great food...and, she's going to try not to hurt Bob's feelings!

Go, go, go!

A common expression in English is

go + an activity

We go swimming,

we go shopping,

we go fishing,

we go jogging,

we go sightseeing, and

we go bar-hopping (or, so I've heard).

Not always exactly the same...

Some verbs have the same meaning when followed by an infinitive or a gerund:

The same:	I like going to the races.
	I like to go to the races.
The same:	I hate going to the dentist.
	I hate to go to the dentist.
The same:	It began raining.
	It began to rain.

However, some verbs have a slightly different meaning when followed by an infinitive as opposed to a gerund.

• remember, forget, stop

The difference is often in the sequence of events.
See what you think about the following pairs of sentences:

I remembered to feed the dog this morning.	I remember feeding him his favorite food.
-----first--------- second	---second----first
(I remembered and then I fed him.)	(I fed him and later I remembered the action.)

I forgot to go to the bank.	I forgot going to the bank.
-----------------	second first
(I didn't remember and I didn't go to the bank.)	(I went to the bank, but later I forgot that I did.)

I stopped to smoke.	I stopped smoking.
---first----- second	--second-- first
(I paused what I was doing to have a cigarette.)	(I was a smoker, but now I'm not.)

One more difference

You can also use either an infinitive or a gerund after go on. However, note the difference:

I told Billy to stop, but he went on putting his fingers in the soup.

(The use of a gerund after go on indicates a continuing or persistent activity.)

I was very proud of Billy. We went on to become a famous chef.

(The use of an infinitive after go on indicates a noteworthy or notorious future activity.)

The real test for you will be how well you get the feel of when to use infinitives or gerunds. You can get a better understanding of this if you read English novels and other materials critically.

Gerunds and Infinitives List

Verb + Gerund	Verb +Preposition +Gerund	Be +Adjective +Preposition +Gerund	Verb + Infinitive	Verb +Inifinitive or Gerund
acknowledge	adapt to	be accustomed to	agree	attempt
admit	adjust to	be afraid of	aim	begin
advise	agree (with) on	be angry about	afford	can/can't bear
anticipate	apologize for	be ashamed of	appear	can/can't stand
appreciate	approve of	be capable of	arrange	cease
avoid	argue about	be certain about	ask	continue
consider	ask about	be concerned with	care	forget
defend	believe in	be critical of	choose	go on
defer	blame for	be discouraged from	claim	hate
delay	care about	be enthusiastic about	consent	like
deny	complain about	be familiar with	dare	love
detest	consist of	be famous for	decide	neglect
discuss	decided on	be fond of	decline	prefer
dislike	depend on	be glad about	demand	regret
endure	disapprove of	be good at	deserve	propose
enjoy	discourage from	be happy about	desire	remember
escape	engage in	be interested in	expect	see
excuse	forgive for	be known for	fail	start
feel like	give up	be nervous about	guarantee	stop
finish	help with	be perfect for	happen	try
go	inquire about	be proud of	hope
imagine	insist on	be responsible for	intend
involve	interfere with	be sad about	know
keep	keep on	be successful in	learn
mention	look forward to	be suitable for	manage
mind (object to)	object to	be tired of	need
miss	participate in	be tolerant of	offer
need (passive)	persist in	be upset about	plan
omit	plan on	be used to	pledge
postpone	prepare for	be useful for	prepare
practice	profit from	be worried about	pretend
prevent	prohibit from		promise
quit	put off		refuse
recall	result from		resolve
recollect	succeed in		seem
recommend	suffer from		tend
regret	talk about		struggle
resent	take part in		swear
resist	there's no point in		volunteer
resume	think about		wait
risk	warn about		want
suggest	work on		wish
tolerate	worry about		would like
understand

gerund and infinitives by David Tillyer
taken from :http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/7583/gerinfless.html