Making Plans And Giving Opinions In English

Person 1: I think I want to start a new hobby. 

Person 2: What about football? Person 1: I don’t like football. There’s  

too much running around.

Person 2:  Rock climbing? Person 1: Rock climbing’s too dangerous. 

Person 2: What about swimming? Person 1: I hate swimming. It’s too wet. 

Person 2: Horse riding? Person 1: I’m scared of horses. 

Person 2: Skiing? Person 1: You can’t ski in England. 

Person 2: Do you enjoy anything? Person 1: I love sleeping.

The gerund form of a verb always ends in  ‘-ing’, for example talking, doing, seeing. 

The gerund form of a verb is special because it  is used only when the verb is acting as a noun. 

For example: “I hate swimming.” 

In the sentence “I hate swimming”, the word  ‘swimming’ is being used as a noun, not as a verb.  

You could swap the word swimming for another noun  and the sentence would still make perfect sense. 

In the sentence “Do you miss  swimming when the pool is closed?”,  

the main verb is “miss”. The word “swimming”,  

while it looks like a verb is acting as a noun.  Because we are using the verb in the gerund form.

We often use verbs in the gerund form when  giving opinions about activities like sports,  

paired with the infinitive form of the main verb.

In the sentence “I love sleeping”, the  verb “love” is in the infinitive form  

and the noun “sleeping” is actually the  verb ‘to sleep’ but in its gerund form.

Let’s look at some more examples  of the verb in the gerund form.

Person 1: “I don’t feel like working right now. I’m sick.” 

Person 2: “We can’t stand watching  talent shows. They’re so long!” 

Person 3: “I love listening to  podcasts. You can learn anything.”

Can you think of another example?  I'll tell you what, you have 10 seconds to write your own  

a sentence which uses an infinitive verb and the gerund form of a verb in the comments. And while you do that I'm going to have a little dance.

I don't know what I'm doing but here we go. Ok hopefully you have written something now and I can get back to something that I'm good at, and stop dancing.

So now that we know how to talk about  opinions, let’s learn how to talk about plans. 

The sentence structure for talking  about plans and opinions is very similar  

because just like the examples we’ve just used,  you still use two verbs when talking about plans.

“We arranged to play tennis this  weekend, but the weather is horrible.”

In this sentence, the main  verb “arranged” describes  

a plan or a wish to do a certain  activity, and then we use the word  

‘to’ followed by the infinitive form of  the verb to describe the activity itself.

So remember that difference. We use the gerund  form of the verb when talking about opinions. 

“I don’t like listening to pop music” We use the infinitive form of the verb  

with ‘to’ before it to talk about plans. “I’m hoping to go to university next year.”

Does that make sense? I hope so because now  we’re going to test your new skills with a quiz.

There are going to be 5 questions. I’m going to read a  sentence twice. The first time I will use  

the infinitive form of the verb and the second  time I will use the gerund form of the verb.  

Then, you're going to have around 5-10 seconds to write  down which sentence was correct.  

After your time is up, I  will tell you the correct answer.

1. First sentence: She wants to buy a new dress.  
Second sentence: She wants buying a new dress.
 

Ok time's up, the correct answer is option A. She wants to buy a  new dress. We use the infinitive verb because  

this is a plan, not an opinion. 2. Option A: Do you enjoy to  bake?


Option B: Do you enjoy baking?
  

The correct answer is option B. Do you enjoy  baking? We use the gerund verb form because  

we are asking about an opinion, not a plan. 3. Option A: I plan to cook dinner at  7pm.


Option B: I plan cooking dinner at  7pm.


The correct answer is option A.  I plan to cook dinner at 7pm. Because  

this is a plan, we use the infinitive verb. 4. Option A: They agreed to travel by coach.  


Option B: They agreed travelling by coach.


The correct answer is option A.  They agreed to travel by coach. 

5. Option A: Lucy can’t stand to travel by  plane because it’s uncomfortable.


Option  B: Lucy can’t stand travelling by plane because it’s uncomfortable.
  

The correct answer is option B. Lucy can’t stand  travelling by plane because it’s uncomfortable.  

We use the gerund form because  we’re talking about Lucy’s opinion.

That’s the end of the quiz.  How many did you get right?