Gerunds and Infinitives 👩‍🏫 How to Learn English Grammar 📚

Hi there. It's Jennifer. Are you ready to study grammar with me?

I know some of you don't exactly get excited about grammar. It's kind of like my kids going back to school.

They know they have to, but they're not overly happy about it.

It's late August, so the summer is ending, and I'm a little sad, but we made some good memories.

Truthfully, I'm looking forward to the fall. Of course, I will miss a few things about summertime.

I'll miss sleeping in because I enjoy waking up at 8 or 9 rather than five or six in the morning.

But the fall brings new activities.

My son will be on a new hockey team, and my daughter will continue to play soccer.

I plan to go to their games and cheer them on.

Did you catch any of the verbs I used? Listen again.

Miss sleeping in.

Enjoy waking up.

Continue to play.

Plan to go.

How do I know when to use a gerund and when to use an infinitive?

This is something you have to learn through practice.

We have two basic groups of transitive verbs. Those are verbs that take an object.

There are verbs that are always followed by a gerund.

For example, miss doing something, enjoy doing something.

Then there are verbs that are always followed by an infinitive. for example, plan to do something.

Then we have verbs that can be followed by either a gerund or an infinitive.

"Continue" is a good example.

There's no real difference in meaning between these two sentences:

Then we have a small group of verbs that can take either a gerund or an infinitive as the direct object,

but the meanings change.

For example,

"remember doing" and "remember to do" have different meanings.

I cover these verbs in another video.

As I said learning the patterns comes through practice.

You won't be able to memorize all the verbs that follow a pattern in a single day.

You can use this lesson to guide your studies if you like the way we practice grammar today

You can do similar practice tasks on your own or with a study partner.

There are many grammar charts online and in text books. Find a grammar chart for gerunds and infinitives.

Select 5 to 10 verbs that only take a gerund and then 5 to 10 verbs that only take an infinitive.

Write these verbs on cards and then mix those cards up.

Then try to sort those verbs into two groups.

Let's try this together. Sort these 10 verbs with me.

Next, make up a story using each verb, one sentence for each word card.

The verb on the card must be followed by a gerund or an infinitive. Here's a model.

So he avoided talking to that person. Yeah. Okay you avoided talking to the person?

Let's sort another group of verbs and you can create your own short story in the comments.

Here's another activity: Q&A. Again here are some verbs to sort.

Again if you're studying on your own check your work after you're done sorting the cards note any mistakes cards

and then mix the cards up again.

Work with the partner and take turns asking questions. When it's your turn, take a word card from the pile.

Your question must use the verb on the card. That verb will be followed either by a gerund or an infinitive.

Here's a model.

Do I have something underneath?

No. - You can't deny eating that many chips.

Yes, and it would be very difficult.

A little.

No, I would not attempt to jump out of a plane even with the best parachute ever.

It's too cold outside.

Let's talk about other patterns. GO plus a gerund is used for many recreational activities,

especially outdoor activities.

I like to go bowling with my kids.

Both of my kids have gone rock climbing.

If you watched my summer vacation video, then you know my family went horseback riding and

snorkeling in Hawaii.

What kinds of outdoor activities do you enjoy? Do you go fishing, hunting, hiking, or camping?

Remember that gerunds behave like nouns. That means that gerunds can be objects of prepositions.

Here are three patterns we use with a preposition followed by a gerund.

Verb + preposition + gerund, Noun + preposition + gerund and

adjective + preposition + gerund.

You can use my playlist on prepositions to review common collocations,

such as

When you review these kinds of patterns, don't just study them. Practice using them. Create your own examples.

There are also patterns you can learn with infinitives, for example, verb + object + infinitive.

Listen to my story and try to identify that pattern

Did you catch the pattern? Here are the verb phrases I used.

There are more than a dozen verbs that follow this pattern. I'll tell you just a few more.

Perhaps you might use these verbs to continue the story. If you do, post your story ending in the comments.

What do you think eventually happened to the king?

Well, here's one possibility.

Listen from my use of infinitives as I continue the story.

The final patterns to note our noun + infinitive.

Adjective + infinitive.

Look and listen for patterns around you in the news, in movies, in books, and in conversations.

The first step is to recognize these patterns and become familiar with them. Then you start to use them.

With practice, those patterns will become part of your everyday communication in English.

Well, there's certainly more to talk about, but we'll end here for now. If you found this lesson useful and you'd like more practice with

gerunds and infinitives in the future, please like this video. As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!

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