Gerund and Inf 4

Gerunds often follow verbs often follow verbs that indicate that an action that indicate that an action. is happening or has is happening or has[r]

Gerunds

and Infinitives

Gerunds and infinitives

can function as:

To form gerunds, use the base form + ing

(don’t’ forget the rules for spelling of ing form of verbs)

I enjoy learning English

To form negative gerunds,

Gerunds used as subject of the

sentence.

Dancing is fun

Gerunds used as

objects

He enjoys working with

children

Verbs that take only

Gerunds used as

object of the preposition

I am thinking about taking the children to Mexico.

Common preposition combinations followed by

gerunds

about, think about, worry about

to

By + gerund

You get good grades by studying hard.

go + gerund

Recreational activities: camping, dancing,

sightseeing, swimming, skiing, fishing, jogging,

I will go fishing with you tomorrow.

Some expressions

are used with

gerunds

Be busy, can’t help, have fun,

it’s no use, it’s not worth

To form infinitives use

to + base form of the verb

I want to dance

To form negative infinitives

use Not + infinitive

He decided not to go to the

party.

Infinitives in the subject position

To live in the United States is my

dream

It is my dream to live in the

United States.

Verbs that take infinitives

Verb + infinitives – agree, appear, decide

hope, intend, learn, offer, plan, seem, tend, wait, can afford

Verb + Noun phrase + infinitive – cause,

convince, force, invite, order, persuade,

remind, tell, trust, warn, advise,

encourage

Verbs that come directly after the infinitive

or have a noun phrase – ask, beg, choose, expect, need, want, would like, promise

Adjectives followed

by infinitives

Afraid, amazed, anxious, ashamed, careful, delighted, eager, fortunate, glad, happy, lucky, pleased, ready, sad, sorry,

Infinitive of purpose

In order to

I came here in order to learn.

Infinitive with too and

enough

too + adjective or adverb +

infinitive She is too young to vote.

Adjective or adverb + enough + infinitive

They are old enough to vote.

Gerunds often follow verbs that indicate that an action

is happening or has

happened.

The action expressed by the

verb comes at the same

time or after the action

expressed by the gerund.

We enjoy going to concerts

Infinitives often follow

verbs that indicate that an action will or could happen.

The action expressed by the

verb comes before the action expressed by the

infinitive.

We hope to go to the

concert.

Verbs that are followed by

a noun phrase + infinitive can also be followed by a

gerund.

The gerund makes it general and the infinitive make specific the person

These verbs are:

advise allow encourage

permit require urge

Some verbs can be followed

by both gerund or infinitive

with no change in meaning.

Begin, hate, like, start, love, prefer, continue

I like cooking.

I like to cook.

She started losing weight She started to lose weight.

Some verbs although they can

meaning

remember

forget regret stop try get

She stopped smoking.

She stopped to smoke.

They forgot buying bread They forgot to buy bread.

Used to

Be used to Get used to Used to + base form

Be used to + gerund Get used to + gerund

Verbs of perception:

infinitives: from start to

finish

Gerunds: in progress

I heard the children cry.

I saw your friends walking

in the park.

Infinitive forms are not used after the following

verbs of perception:

feel see hear smell

When a specific performer

of the gerund action needs

to be indicated, a possessive noun or a possessive determiner is

used.

I really appreciate Karen’s/her writing that

letter for me.

Peter’s/his coming late

Your neglecting your teeth will cause an earlier return

to the dentist.

Their denying the

allegation was understandable.

I didn’t like the dog’s

barking all night.

I don’t mind his leaving

When an infinitive functions as a subject or a subject complement, any

stated subject of the infinitive should be preceded by for If a pronoun follows for, it must

be in object form.

When the subject of a gerund is stated, it takes

For people to see is a

Infinitives can occur in the progressive but gerunds

cannot.

To be doing

It is used to indicate an activity in progress or

ongoing She had hoped to be

Both gerunds and infinitives can occur in the

perfect form having done

A gerund can be used in the

passive form

I dislike being told a lie.

Have make let are causative verbs They

cause someone to do

something.

They are always followed by

a noun phrase + base form

of verb.

Do not use an infinitive

after these verbs.

She made her daughter go

After causative verbs:

get convince persuade use the infinitive

She got me to work.

She convinced me to work.

Sense-perception verbs:

hear, listen to feel, smell, see watch, observe, notice

are followed by either a

noun phrase + base or –ing

form with only a slight

difference in meaning.

We saw people living in

poverty.

We saw them perform

I helped them to clean up

after the party.

perfect infinitive: to have

moved

progressive infinitive: to be working

Perfect gerund: having

moved passive gerund: being done

perfect passive gerund: having been selected

The End!

The End!