GERUND (-ing) or INFINITIVE (to) - When & How to Use them! (+ Free PDF & Quiz)

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- Hello, lovely students,

and welcome back to English with Lucy.

Today I have a grammar lesson for you.

We're going to conquer a mistake

that I hear made all the time.

Why do we say,

I enjoy walking,

but also,

I love to walk?

Why can't we say, I enjoy to walk?

Why do we say, I plan to come,

but not I plan coming?

It's all about gerunds and infinitives,

and it's a tough subject,

but we're going to cover everything today

and you will leave this lesson

with a much better understanding

and a slightly wider vocabulary.

As always, there is a free PDF and exercise pack

that goes with this video.

If you would like to read a full summary of the lesson

and take lots of extra exercises to test your understanding,

then download it now

by clicking on the link in the description box.

You enter your name and your email address,

you sign up to my mailing list,

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Right, let's get started with the lesson.

We're going to take a look at how we can change verbs

into verbal nouns called gerunds and infinitives

and how we can use these grammar tools effectively.

Firstly, let's talk about gerunds.

What on earth is a gerund?

It's not as complicated as it sounds.

It's a verb that ends in -ing that acts as a noun.

For example, we can take the base verb, walk,

add -ing and it makes walking.

Walking is our gerund,

and if we make a sentence using this gerund,

walking is our subject.

Walking always puts me in a good mood.

Walking, the gerund is the subject.

That's a really important rule to remember.

Not every verb ending in -ing is a gerund.

Take a look at the progressive tenses

or the continuous tenses.

They use a be verb and the present participle

like a gerund, this adds -ing to a base verb.

I am eating.

She is talking.

So how do we know if a verb ending in -ing

is a present participle or a gerund?

Well, gerunds always act as nouns or noun phrases.

Never as a verb.

Jenny enjoys walking, walking is acting

as the object of this sentence.

What does Jenny enjoy?

Walking.

Take a look at these two sentences.

Jenny enjoys walking.

Jenny is walking right now.

In the first sentence we have walking as a gerund.

Walking is the object of that sentence.

What does Jenny enjoy doing?

Walking.

In the second sentence, Jenny is walking right now.

Walking is acting as a verb or part of the verb.

She is walking.

Be verb plus the present participle.

Okay, enough about gerunds.

Let's move on to infinitives.

I also said that we use infinitives to create verbal nouns

and infinitives are the simplest form of a verb.

To make an infinitive,

we simply place to in front of the base verb.

Infinitives are sometimes called to infinitives

and this always reminds me of Buzz Lightyear,

to infinitives and beyond.

- To infinity and beyond.

- We'll take our base verb walk.

We add to and we have our infinitive to walk.

In a sentence, she expected to walk right in.

Okay, we've covered the basics.

Now I think it's time to look a little deeper

at how we use gerunds and infinitives.

Let's start by looking at how we use them

in similar situations.

Firstly, let's look at them as of objects of a sentence.

The basic form of a sentence

in English is subject plus verb plus object.

When a gerund comes before the main verb in a sentence

it will act as the subject of that sentence.

You saw this in the example I used earlier.

Walking always puts me in a good mood.

Walking is the subject of that sentence.

I can replace walking with a noun

and the subject will still make sense.

Harry Potter always puts me in a good mood.

Let's have a look at a few more examples.

Playing the guitar was always his favourite hobby.

Baking is a great way to relieve stress.

Reading helps me keep my mind sharp.

If I say that my mind is sharp

it means I'm quick to think I'm not slow.

I'm sharp.

Cheating will never get you anywhere in life.

Now that first example is interesting.

Can you see that I underlined playing and the guitar?

That's because the gerund there

is used as part of a noun phrase.

We could make baking part of a noun phrase by saying,

baking a cake is a good way to relieve stress.

Using gerunds as the subject of a sentence

is pretty straightforward

but using to infinitives

as the subject of sentences is slightly different.

When we use an infinitive

as the subject of a sentence, it can sound extremely formal.

Almost like you are writing in the style of Shakespeare.

It can sound quite fancy.

And if that's what you are going for

then use all of the infinitives you like.

It sounds natural for me to say,

singing gives me great pleasure.

But if I say to sing, gives me great pleasure.

It doesn't sound wrong.

It just really formal and posh and slightly old fashioned.

As always with English, there are exceptions

and we do use infinitives as the subject of sentences

when we are giving instructions or giving directions,

when we're quoting someone

or when we are giving a dictionary definition.

For example, to cook properly,

place the fish skin side down

or to get there, take the bus to the highstreet

and then cross the road.

Okay, now we're getting to the good bit.

This part is really going to help you make some quick fixes.

We're going to talk about using gerunds or infinitives

after certain verbs.

Now some verbs, some lovely verbs allow you to use

either a gerund or an infinitive after it.

I'll show you some examples, but we've got way more examples

in the PDF and some exercise questions.

So don't forget to download that.

The link is in the description box.

She hates sleeping late.

She hates to sleep late, both work beautifully.

We prefer eating at home.

We prefer to eat at home.

They started working on the project at school.

They started to work on the project at school.

Eat, sleep, work, these are all fine.

They allow the use of both infinitives and gerunds

but you can imagine what comes next.

There are some verbs that only allow gerunds to follow,

and there are some verbs that only allow

infinitives to follow.

Let's take a look at the verbs that allow gerunds first.

We have the verbs consider, deny,

enjoy, imagine

and suggest.

When we add gerunds to these sentences

they function as direct objects.

He considered moving to Spain last year.

Jack denied cheating on his test.

Wendy enjoys watching movies at weekends.

We imagined waking up to a beautiful sunrise.

Dan suggested bringing home a rescue dog.

We can also use the verb go plus a gerund

when we're talking about hobbies

or recreational activities like the following,

go hiking, go shopping, going swimming,

going fishing, went sightseeing, went snorkelling.

There are loads more, and these will come with practise.

We can also use gerunds as the object of prepositions.

Meaning we use them after a preposition.

Let's quickly review some common prepositions

and how we can use them with gerunds.

Before, before completing university,

he already had many job offers.

By, by getting up early, I'm ready for my morning runs.

Since, I have been thinking of him nonstop

since meeting him.

Except, he hates all forms of creative expression

except writing.

Except here means apart from.

Without, we decided to take a trip without planning,

and after, after recovering from his injury,

Will retired from rugby.

Okay, so those were the basic functions of gerunds

to get you started on your gerund journey,

but let's jump into the infinitives now.

Just like with gerunds,

infinitives follow certain verbs.

With these next sentences, the infinitives will act

as the direct object of the verbs.

We have agree.

We agreed to never speak to each other again.

Demand, they demanded to change their flight.

Manage, he managed to sell his house

after only three days on the market.

Plan, she's planning to quit her job

after returning from holiday,

and a very common one:

Want, Ben wants to travel to London by train.

We use infinitives after certain verb

and object combinations.

The sentence pattern will be subject plus verb

plus object, plus infinitive.

Take a look at these examples.

They asked us to help with the washing up.

She told him to bring home the dog food.

He encouraged her to follow her dreams.

We can also use infinitives after adjectives.

Take a look at these examples.

He was happy to include her in the new project at work.

They were sad to leave the island at the end of the holiday.

We are pleased to welcome you into our home.

If you are still unsure

on when to use a gerund or when to use an infinitive,

I have a little trick that may help you.

But please bear in mind,

it doesn't work all the time, but it can guide you

in an emergency in the middle of an exam.

In general, if the first action leads to a second action

then we use an infinitive.

He wants to eat pizza for dinner.

If the first action is happening at the same time

as the second action, then we use gerund.

He likes eating pizza for dinner.

Right, that is it for today's lesson.

I hope you enjoyed it.

And I hope you feel a little more clarity

over the topic of infinitives and gerunds.

As I've said before, the PDF today is a gold mine.

We have included so much more vocabulary

so many more examples

and loads and loads of exercise questions.

So you can test your understanding.

You can make sure that you've understood the lesson

and you've taken it all in and that you'll retain it

and remember it for later.

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Try it out.

That's all for me.

I will see you soon for another lesson, mwah.

Right, let's get started with the lesson on jet--

Well, it's a verb that--

Okay, do it again.

Oops.

The basic form of a subject.

Oops. Oops.

My pronunciation wasn't good then.

Oops.

Deny.

Enjoy

Bah.

Whoops.

Gerund ugh.

Manage.

He managed to, ugh, why am I'm struggling with that?

Manage.

He managed to, stupid.

That's actually really hard to say managed to.

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