Gerund & Infinitive | English Grammar Lesson | C1-Advanced

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Hello and welcome everyone to this lesson which  is about gerund and infinitive, and it's based  

on a very common question I get from many of you,  and that is: How do we choose between gerund and  

infinitive? Are there any rules? My answer is that  there are a few rules, 'guidelines' more like it,  

but you mainly need to rely on your ears to tell  you what sounds right. Now, the good news is that  

if you make a mistake here, your message is still  perfectly clear. So, just be patient. You will  

gradually activate the correct form. Right, but  today, we're going to help you pick up some of the  

guidelines and hopefully start using them. But,  first let's look at when we need to choose between  

gerund and infinitive. Sometimes, we need to use  a verb without conjugating it, that is without  

putting it in a tense. In this case, unlike other  languages which offer only one form usually,  

English has three forms to choose from. And these  three forms are: infinitive with to (to do),  

infinitive without to (just do), and gerund, which  is the noun form of a verb. Let's look at three  

examples. So, for the verb 'need', if you have a  second verb, you need to use 'infinitive with to':  

She needs to relax more. After modal verbs  like 'should', we need to use the base verb,  

infinitive without to: They should hire more  stuff. And the example for the gerund is the verb  

'enjoy'. If you put a verb after the conjugated  verb 'enjoy', it has to be in the 'doing form':  

He enjoys spending time in nature. The most  common form, and the form most of us like to use,  

is 'to do': infinitive with to', and if in doubt  just go for that, go for 'infinitive with to'  

because it's the most common one, but of course  sometimes the other two forms are necessary. So,  

now we're going to look at some guidelines where  you must not use 'to do' and use the other forms,  

starting with 'do', when we should use 'do'.  There are three categories here. First of all:  

after all modal verbs. That's easy to remember,  a very easy rule to remember: After a modal verb,  

just use 'do' (the base verb), no 'to'. The modal  verbs you know are: can, could, may, might, must,  

should, will, shall, and would. So: I must  go now. Sometimes, I hear some students say:  

I must to go now. To be avoided: I must go  now. The second category here is after these  

common verbs and expressions. The list is not  exhaustive, but these are the common ones that  

you need to remember: let, make, would rather, had  better, and 'why not' with a question: Why not go?  

NOT 'Why not going?', which is the common  mistake. For example, with the verb 'make':  

The presenter made us all stand up. No 'to' , no  'ing'. And the third category here, the final one,  

is after verbs and expressions that end  in 'to' obviously. We have four of these:  

'ought to', which is a modal verb but happens  to have the word 'to' as part of it; 'have to',  

which means obligation; 'used to' (habit in the  past), and 'going to', a future form. Obviously  

that's the easiest one to remember. You don't want  to use anything other than 'do' (the base verb)  

here. For example: You ought to be more cautious.  So, that's for the base verb: when you should use  

'do': three categories, quite straightforward  really. Now let's look at 'doing'. The first one  

I want to mention to you is: If you use a verb  as the subject of another verb, you must make  

sure you use the gerund form, the 'doing' form,  not the infinitive. A common mistake I hear is  

for example: To walk in nature is healthy. Make  sure you use the gerund when it's the subject of a  

verb because really we want to use the noun form  of the verb here as a subject. But, be careful  

that if you say, if you construct your sentence  the other way, like saying: It is healthy, then  

you keep the 'infinitive with to': It is healthy  to walk in nature. So, that's the first category  

with 'doing'. The second one: a very clear rule  in English: after a preposition. So for example:  

I apologise for being late. I have three notes  here about this particular category: Remember  

that 'to' itself can also be a preposition. It  confuses things; makes things complicated. But,  

'to' is also a preposition like 'for', like 'in'.  A very clear example is 'he is used to'. So, this  

is the expression 'to be used to', which means  'to be accustomed to'. As a preposition here,  

the next verb has to be in the gerund form: He's  used to, or He's accustomed to, working in a  

noisy office. Note 2: Obviously a phrasal verb  always ends in a preposition, so if you have a  

second verb after a conjugated phrasal verb, it's  usually also with 'ing'. For example: I carried on  

reading. And the final note: Because it's a common  mistake I hear, I thought I'd point it out here:  

Make sure you don't answer a 'why'  question with 'for doing'. For example,  

if we say 'Why are you studying English?', don't  say 'For improving my career prospects.' It is 'To  

improve my career prospects'. You have to use  the infinitive form of the verb when you give  

the reason for doing something, the goal, the  objective. Right! One more I think, yeah. No,  

two more. The third category, obviously, is after  these common verbs and expressions. Again, this is  

not an exhaustive list, but the most common ones  that you're likely to use yourself, and the ones  

that I hear the mistakes with. So again here, you  will have to review them and then gradually rely  

on your memory to remember. The ones I have  chosen for you to actively work on are: risk,  

avoid, recommend, suggest, stop, finish, enjoy,  mind, consider, quit, keep, and involve, and then  

the phrases 'can't stand', 'can't help', 'have  difficulty or problems', and 'spend' or 'waste'  

time'. These are common verbs and expressions  you use, so you could try and remember these  

particularly; not the whole list because the list  can be quite long if you want to memorise all of  

them. For example then: He risks losing his place  in the finals. Right, and one little one where,  

again, I sometimes hear mistakes being made is  if you use 'go' with an activity, you should use  

the gerund, not the infinitive. So: I could have  gone jogging yesterday. NOT I could have gone,  

excuse me, to jog yesterday. Right, what else  have I got to say? Yes, so finally of course,  

English being English, having gone through all the  rules, there are also a few verbs, not many, that  

you can use either with 'to do' or 'doing', and  I've got two categories here for you. One is when  

you use 'to do' or 'doing', and you don't change  the meaning at all, so the exact same meaning,  

and there are three verbs here: start, begin,  and continue. So, it doesn't make any difference  

whether you say 'We started to climb the hill.'  or ' We started climbing the hill.' Same meaning:  

both are correct; both are equally common to use.  The next group in this category are: like, hate,  

and prefer. So usually, especially in British  English, we use the 'ing' form: doing, the gerund,  

with these verbs. So: I like / hate / prefer  swimming. But, you may also hear 'to swim' without  

changing the meaning at all. That's probably more  common in American English. But an important note  

here is that if you add 'would' to these three  verbs, you change the idea from a general like,  

dislike, or preference to a dislike or a like  or a preference that you are experiencing at the  

moment, and in that case, you can only use 'to  do'. So, don't say 'I would hate interrupting  

you.' but 'I would hate to interrupt you.' as  that's a specific case here. And now the other  

category: when we can use both 'to do' or 'doing',  but where here the meaning changes. There are two  

verbs I'd like to point out to you here. The first  one is 'remember'. 'remember' has two meanings.  

The first meaning is 'not to forget', the opposite  of 'forget'. But, it has a second meaning, which  

is 'recall'. So, if it's 'not to forget', then  it's with 'infinitive with to': I must remember  

to put my glasses in my bag; I must not forget.  But, when it's 'recall', it's: I remember putting  

my glasses in my bag last night, but they're not  here now. So here, you recall doing something in  

the past. So, the form changes depending on which  meaning you have. And, the final verb or the  

second verb in this category where the meaning  changes is 'regret'. You can use 'regret' to  

express that you are sorry for the action you are  going to take or sorry for an action that you have  

already taken. For the first case, it's with the  'infinitive with to': I regret to tell you this,  

but ... It's now a regret you have for the  action you're going to take. But, if it's an  

action you took in the past, then it changes to  'ing', so it's: I regret telling her that joke.  

So, that's all for the rules and the different  categories. So obviously, this needs a lot of  

revision, and then gradually through revision,  through writing your own examples, and through  

exposure to many examples, they will become  reflexive, automatic. Be patient! Give yourself  

time. One last thing I'd like to mention is that  this form 'doing' is not just a gerund form. You  

also see the form 'doing' in Continuous tenses or  as an adjective. It's not the same thing. 'doing'  

is not called a gerund when it's in a tense  or in an adjective. It's called the 'present  

participle'. So, if you look at this sentence, we  had it before: Walking in nature ..., 'walking' is  

the gerund here because it's the noun, it's the  subject of the verb, ... is becoming popular.  

'becoming' is not the gerund; this is the Present  Continuous tense, and the 'becoming' part of it is  

called 'present participle'. It's the same if you  use an adjective, for example: Walking in nature  

is energising.' 'walking' is the gerund form but  'energising' is 'present participle', which is  

being used here as a 'participle adjective'. So,  I thought, because that question comes up as well,  

so I hope that clarifies that 'doing' has two  different, falls into two different, categories:  

the gerund or the present participle. All right!  That brings me to the end of this session,  

this lesson. I hope it's been helpful. As I said,  you do need to revise it a few times, make some  

notes for yourself, and just don't worry about  making mistakes with gerund and infinitive for  

the moment. They will become active in your spoken  English and written English. I hope you've enjoyed  

this lesson. For more on this topic, click here.  Remember to also check out my complete online  

course, and don't forget to like and subscribe.  Thank you for watching and happy studies!