-ing vs. to | Gerunds vs. Infinitives: When and How to Use Them

Take a look at these two sentences. I enjoy visiting museums when I travel.

I enjoy to visit museums when I travel.

It's the -ING versus to question gerund versus infinitive.

And I have to tell you if there is one point where I see my students

constantly second guessing themselves, doubting their decisions, it's with this,

this -ING versus to question is the source of frustration,

annoyance, and mistakes. And honestly,

it's no surprise there aren't any clear cut rules that apply universally.

Instead, it all depends on certain verbs, expressions,

and sentence structures. So what's the solution?

How can you stop feeling frustrated and avoid mistakes going forward?

While there's no one size fits all rule, you can learn to get this right.

It's about recognizing patterns,

knowing which verbs go with -ING, and which verbs go with to.

And then practicing until it becomes instinctual. Today,

I'll guide you step by step through the differences.

Highlight common pitfalls and share tips to help you get it right.

It takes some practice, but with the right guidance,

you can absolutely stop feeling frustrated, avoid common mistakes,

and feel confident using these tricky little words.

Now first, if you're new here, welcome. I'm Annemarie,

an English confidence and fluency coach.

Everything I do is designed to help you get the confidence you want for your

life and work in English.

If you'd love to discover years of lessons for me and free resources like my

in-depth fluency training called How to Get the Confidence to Say What You Want,

you can get all of that and more at my Speak Confident English website. Now,

I have to tell you this particular lesson is extremely thorough.

It's everything you've ever wanted to know about this gerund

versus infinitive question.

So let's start with a quick snapshot of everything we're going to talk about

today. First,

I wanna share a quick reminder of what exactly gerunds and infinitives are.

Then we'll move on to grammatical similarities,

quick tips for making the right choice,

the learning patterns you need to know for using in definitives,

and then the learning patterns you need to know for using gerunds.

As we get toward the end,

we'll also talk about situations in which both a jnd and an infinitive can be

used. And we'll finish with how to learn all of this faster.

So get your note taking book out and let's go. So first,

what exactly are gerunds and in definitives? Again,

gerunds are formed when we add an -ING to the base form of a verb such as

swim, jog, read, drive, and when we do this,

it turns that verb into a noun. For example, we get swimming,

jogging, reading, and driving.

Because gerunds function as a noun, they can be subjects,

objects, and compliments in a sentence.

They also describe activities and ongoing action.

And now infinitives and infinitive is the base form of a verb with the word

to to swim, to jog, to read, to drive,

and in sentences, infinitives can function as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs.

With all of that in mind,

let's move on to some ways that gerunds and infinitives are similar.

First, they can both be used as the subject of a sentence. For example,

to run a mile successfully,

you should begin your training with stretches and running helps me clear

my mind and stay physically active.

The second way in which they're similar is they can both be used as objects of

verbs. For example, I hope to work abroad one day.

I enjoy working at my current job. And number three,

they are both frequently used with specific verbs and adjectives.

This is something we're going to spend a lot of time talking about in this

lesson, but here are two quick examples.

I love hosting movie nights with my friends.

It's important to be honest when applying for jobs. In a moment,

we're going to take a deep dive into some specific patterns we can follow to

help us know when to use a Jar rand and when to use an infinitive.

But before we get there,

I want to first start with some quick tips that can also help you in making the

decision to get it right first. Gerunds follow prepositions.

Whether it's a preposition in a sentence or a preposition in a phrasal verb,

we cannot use an infinitive after the preposition,

however, we can use a Gerund. Let's take a look at two example sentences.

I love to drink a cup of coffee before running because it gives me an

extra boost. Before is a preposition,

which means I cannot say before to run.

I have to say before running to give me an extra boost.

And then I look forward to chatting with you next week.

This one might be tricky because we have that word to,

which makes it seem like maybe we should use an infinitive.

But here we have the phrasal verb to look forward to

something that phrasal verb ends with the preposition to.

And because it's functioning as a preposition,

the next word cannot be the infinitive form. It has to be aand.

I look forward to chatting with you next week before we go on to the next tip,

let me give you one more example with another phrasal verb. After the meeting,

she broke down crying. I don't know what happened,

but obviously it wasn't a good meeting because we have the phrasal verb break

down, and because down is a preposition,

the next word is the -ING form to break down crime.

Quick tip number two is infinitives follow certain adjectives.

For example,

do you think it's challenging to speak English in front of others?

Here we have the adjective challenging and it's followed by the infinitive

to speak, or she was nervous to find out about her exam results.

Here we have the adjective nervous, and once again,

we're following it with the infinitive form of a verb.

We cannot use gerunds in these examples.

I want you to think for a moment about using an adjective like amazed.

When you use that in a sentence,

the next word cannot be an -ING word.

You can be amazed to discover. You can be amazed to find out.

You can be amazed to feel something. When we use that adjective,

the next word is quite often an infinitive.

This is also true of adjectives such as careful,

determined, surprised.

If you'd like to find a much longer list of common adjectives that are followed

by infinitives, you can go to this lesson at my Speak Confident English website.

I have this full lesson in writing,

so you can go on over there and get the full list.

But now let's go on to tip number three.

Gerunds cannot be used in the passive voice. However,

we can use the infinitive form and here are two example sentences to illustrate

that I hope to be invited to the party.

It's rewarding to be recognized for your hard work. And finally,

quick tip number four,

infinitives can modify or describe nouns.

What this means is that just like an adjective,

an infinitive can provide more information about a noun.

It can describe a person, place, or thing. In doing so,

the infinitive provides us with more information about the state quality

or purpose of something. For example,

the desire to succeed drove her to work harder.

If we ask what kind of desire, we have a description,

we have more information, the desire to succeed. Here's another example.

The opportunity to travel was exciting. What kind of opportunity?

The opportunity to travel. And here's one more.

The plan to retire early was poorly thought out. Again,

when we ask what kind of plan it was, the plan to retire early.

Alright, we've quickly reviewed what exactly gerunds and infinitives are.

We've also looked at how they're similar grammatically,

and I highlighted some quick tips to help you get it right when making a

decision on which one to use. Now I wanna get into the heart of our lesson,

and this is where I encourage you to take notes.

We're going to look at patterns of verbs that require a jar,

patterns of verbs that require an infinitive,

and situations in which both can be used. And as I highlighted earlier,

I'll also finish with how you can learn all of this faster.

Let's talk first about common verbs followed by infinitives.

I know this whole topic is a bit tricky, so again,

we're going step by step with multiple examples along the way.

And there's something important to know about sentences with infinitives.

There are two ways an infinitive can follow a verb.

First, it can come directly after the verb. For example,

I want to go out to dinner tonight.

And sometimes a noun or a pronoun is in between the verb

and the infinitive. For example,

she taught him to play the piano for seven years and sometimes

both can happen and be perfectly correct. Take a look at these two examples.

I asked him to meet me after work or I asked to meet him after work.

There is no difference in meaning or accuracy in these sentences.

Both are perfectly correct.

Paying attention when reading and listening in English can help you use these

grammatical structures accurately.

Even better is to take just a little bit of extra time to create your own

example sentence or maybe two,

because that helps to lock that information into your active memory.

And you can do that with this first list of verbs,

verbs for wants, needs and expectations.

Verbs such as to be excited to love to tell somebody something.

These verbs are followed by infinitives. For example,

I'm excited to start a new chapter in my career.

I love to host dinner parties during the holidays.

Would you like to join us for drinks after work?

I encourage you to write this list of verbs down and take a moment to create an

example sentence or two with each one and make sure that the verb that comes

after is in the infinitive form.

And if you want to get more sentences for a template to follow,

you can visit this lesson over at my speak confident English website.

In a moment,

we will be talking about verbs that can be followed by an infinitive or

a a jar with no real change in meaning. So we will talk about this further,

but I want to take a moment to touch on it here.

When it comes to verbs such as like love and hate English,

speakers may follow that word with a jar or an infinitive with no real

difference in meaning. However,

somewhat unconsciously there are some general patterns that may happen.

For example, when we talk about what we love hate or like in general,

we tend to use the Gerund form. I love reading that's a general truth.

And then when the meaning is specific or related to a certain

situation, we tend to use the infinitive form. For example,

I love to dance with my husband. Now this is not a hard and fast rule,

and if you ask most English speakers, they probably aren't even aware of it.

However, these patterns do exist.

And now let's talk about verbs related to effort, intention,

and planning verbs such as to fail to try to attempt and

to decide. These verbs too are followed by infinitives.

For example, the company failed to launch a new product before the holidays.

We attempted to maintain the original style of the house.

I plan to travel across Europe for the next six months.

Our third category for verbs followed by infinitives, relate to ability,

permission, and obligation. For example, to allow to manage,

to expect the clients expect to receive your proposals by the

end of the week. By the way,

Loretta offered to cover my shifts for next week.

We managed to arrive at the expected time.

We have two more categories to review when it comes to verbs followed by

infinitives. As you've seen here,

we have quite a list available and I wanna share a quick reminder if you want

to see this full list in writing and get all of my example sentences.

You can find all of that in this lesson at my Speak Confident English website.

I also encourage you to come back to this lesson for review,

to take notes and write down your own example sentences.

Truly locking this information into your memory so that you can use it when

speaking and writing in English.

And now here are a few verbs related to cause effect and purpose.

To force somebody to do something,

to teach somebody to do something, to remember to do something.

For example,

the changes in management forced Lisa to look elsewhere for a job.

My sister taught me to play the guitar at a young age.

Please remember to write your name at the top of the page.

And our final category verbs for perception, for example,

to appear to seem to tend and to happen.

I tend to laugh when I'm nervous.

It seems to be a copy of the secret recipe.

The woman in the painting appeared to be smiling.

Now I want to transition to verbs that are followed by gerunds.

And if you think back to the start of this lesson,

I highlighted that only gerunds can follow a preposition in

definitives cannot. And we're going to see several examples of that here.

Our first category of verbs here relate to feelings,

opinions and preferences. Verbs such as to admit,

to dislike, to enjoy,

and to feel like I feel like going for a run this morning.

I miss living close to my family. The kids dislike playing outside,

they'd rather be on their iPads.

Up next are verbs that describe habits and actions.

For example,

to be or to get used to doing something to say that you can't

stand, something to consider and to finish. For example,

you got used to drinking coffee every morning.

I can't stand waiting in a long line.

Have you considered switching to a different career?

And now our last category here are verbs related to advice and

recommendations including to recommend,

to suggest and to give up.

The city recommends visiting the newly built museum.

You should give up smoking.

I suggest trying a new restaurant next to the office. Okay,

you now have a very healthy list of verbs followed by infinitives and verbs

followed by gerunds.

We highlighted earlier that there are some verbs that are more flexible.

They can be followed by either a gerund or an infinitive.

And let's take a moment to look at some of those verbs.

This includes verbs such as to begin to continue to hate,

to like to love. For example,

next month I will start a class to begin to learn how to paint.

Or next week I will start a new class to begin learning how to paint.

There is no difference in meaning.

And both of those example sentences are perfectly correct.

The same is true if I say I like to take a walk after dinner or I like

taking a walk after dinner. However,

when it comes to verbs that can be followed by either a gerund or

an infinitive,

it is not always true that the meaning doesn't

change.

There are some verbs where it does take a look at these two

sentences. He stopped walking during his runs.

He stopped to walk during his run.

Can you identify the difference in meaning with these two sentences?

The first sentence indicates that he stopped the habit of walking

during his runs. It suggests that he no longer needs to walk,

that he's trained enough to run consistently for a long period of time.

This second sentence, however, doesn't focus on the overall habit of running.

Instead, it focuses on one specific time,

one instance where he was running and in a particular moment he

stopped to walk. Maybe he needed to catch his breath.

Both sentences are accurate, but the meaning is different.

There are a few more verbs that are similar to this,

including to forget to quit to regret.

Let me give you one more example.

Wendy quit in order to work here and Wendy quit working

here. What do you think the difference is?

Wendy quit in order to work here?

That sentence suggests that she quit some other previous job so that

she could take a job at this current location or this current company.

And the sentence Wendy quit working here says that she quit her current

job.

I know it can be a challenge to distinguish the difference in meaning when a

verb is followed by an infinitive versus a Gerund.

So if you want to get more examples,

I've got those for you in this lesson over at my website. But for now,

I want to finish up with how you can master learning all of

this as quickly as possible. And the answer is simple.

Use it.

Use this knowledge in real life examples in writing and in speaking,

just like I shared in my lesson on how to activate passive vocabulary and

increase your active speaking vocabulary,

the more you use the language that you're learning,

the faster it's going to click and be easy to use whenever you need

to. The truth is,

it's not only about memorizing the grammar that we've learned here today.

It's about making it part of your everyday English experience.

So if you're not sure how to do that, here are three quick ideas I have for you.

Number one, practice speaking out loud, whether it's with a group of friends,

a speaking journal,

or an online learning community like my Confident Women community.

Aim to speak as often as you can and incorporate what you've learned

here. The more you do that,

the easier this is going to be anytime you're in an English conversation.

The second idea is to write short sentences or journal entries.

In this particular lesson, I've shared several example sentences with you,

and of course there are many more available in this lesson over at my Speak

Confident English website.

You can use those as a guide and then create some of your own example sentences

based on your life. Think for a moment about your day, what you did,

who you saw, where you went, and try to use some of your memories,

your experiences in your sentences.

It's going to help the meaning and the usage stick.

And number three, notice and mimic English speakers.

Whether you're watching tv, reading the news, or listening to a podcast,

pay attention to where you see gerunds and infinitives and mimic

what you read in here.

You can also get extra practice with a bonus worksheet I have available when you

visit this lesson over at my website.

I've got a PDF you can download to get some of that initial practice in place.

Thank you so much for joining me today. If you found this lesson helpful,

don't forget to give it a thumbs up and make sure you subscribe so you never

miss one of my Confident English lessons.

Thanks again and I'll see you next time.