Gerunds or
A Grammar Presentation
Infinitives?
Gerunds
(verb + -
ing)
After prepositions
and phrasal verbs
“I’m very good at drawing”
(preposition)
“Olivia’s given up studying
English” (phrasal verb)
as the subject of
a sentence
“Riding my bike is
one of my favorite
activities.”
“Taking the bus to
school is more
convenient than
driving in rush hour
traffic.”
after some verbs
Common verbs which take the gerund include: admit,
avoid, deny, dislike, enjoy, feel like, finish, hate, keep,
like, love, mind, miss, practise, prefer, recommend,
spend time, stop, suggest.
“I don’t mind getting up
early”
“I hate not being on time for
things”
The
infinitive
to express a reason
or purpose
“Claudia does exercise to
have more energy”
“She is studying hard to
pass all her tests”
After
adjectives
“This recipe is very easy to make”
“Be careful not to burn yourself
when cooking”
after some
Common verbs which take the infinitive
verbs
include: (can’t) afford, agree, decide,
expect, forget, help, hope, learn, need,
pretend, promise, refuse, remember, seem,
try, want, would like. More verbs take the
infinitive than the gerund.
“I can’t afford to buy a new phone now”
verb
+person+infinitive
“I want you to do this
with to
now.”
“The teacher told him not to
run.”
“Can you ask Olivia to
come?”
The infinitive
without to
After modal verbs
“We must/should/ shall/ might/ may / could
eat really fast to be on time for the test”
after make and let
“My parents didn’t let me go out last
night”
start
common It started to rain/ raining.
verbs that can begin
take the I began to take/ taking
classes in 2015.
infinitive or continue
gerund with We continued talking/ to
no difference talk.
common verbs that can take
the infinitive or gerund but
the meaning is different
stop- try- Remember- forget -
REGRET
• “I’ve stopped taking the bus. • “I remember calling her”
( I don’t take it anymore)” (having a memory of
calling her)”
• “I stopped to take the bus. • “I remembered to call her
(stop an activity to do (I didn’t forget to call
something else)” her)”
Tha
