GERUNDS vs. INFINITIVES

Good morning. Welcome back to the Daily Vitamin. I hope your day is going well so far. 

Today I want to talk about when we use the infinitive of a verb in English (for example, TO EAT) and when we use the gerund (EATING). There are some general rules, or tendencies, but it also requires lots of repetition to remember the different cases.

GERUND
⇒ Prepositions are generally followed by the gerund form of the verb.
Example 1: He is good at playing the clarinet.

⇒ Certain verbs like ENJOY, AVOID, DISLIKE, FINISH and CONSIDER are typically followed by the gerund.
Example 2: Would you consider singing in our band?

⇒ When a verb is the subject or the object of a sentence, it is usually in the gerund form.
Example 3 (subject): Taking care of you is one of my favourite things to do in life. 
Example 4 (object): He put swimming on his list of things to do today. 

INFINITIVE
⇒ Some verbs are typically followed by the infinitive. Examples include WANT, DECIDE, NEED, PLAN, HOPE, etc.
Example 5: I want to learn French. 

And some verbs can be followed by both the infinitive and the gerund, and it can cause a change in meaning of the sentence.

⇒ Certain adjectives are followed by the infinitive.
Example 6: He was glad to have the opportunity.

Following I include links to Daily Vitamins that we created in 2019 with some practice with gerunds and infinitives. I have included the answers to the sentences from those Daily Vitamins next to each link below.

14/01/2019: https://www.ziggurat.es/lecciones-ingles/gerund-or-infinitive-dance/3338/ (to dance)
15/01/2019: https://www.ziggurat.es/lecciones-ingles/gerund-or-infinitive-write/3339/ (writing)
16/01/2019: https://www.ziggurat.es/lecciones-ingles/gerund-or-infinitive-listen/3340/ (listening)
17/01/2019: https://www.ziggurat.es/lecciones-ingles/gerund-or-infinitive-smoke/3341/ (smoking)
18/01/2019: https://www.ziggurat.es/lecciones-ingles/gerund-or-infinitive-buy/3342/ (to buy / buying)

And here is a series of Daily Vitamins that we created in 2020 about verbs that can be followed by gerunds or infinitives. Once again, I have included the answers to the activities in parenthesis after each link. 
20/01/2020: https://ziggurat.es/lecciones-ingles/gerund-and-infinitive-to-stop/3545/ (sentence 1)
21/01/2020: https://www.ziggurat.es/lecciones-ingles/gerund-and-infinitive-to-remember/3546/ (sentence 1)
22/01/2020: https://www.ziggurat.es/lecciones-ingles/gerund-and-infinitive-to-forget/3547/ (sentence 1)
23/01/2020: https://www.ziggurat.es/lecciones-ingles/gerund-and-infinitive-to-regret/3548/ (sentence 1)
24/01/2020: https://www.ziggurat.es/lecciones-ingles/gerund-and-infinitive-to-go-on/3549/ (sentence 2)

If you have any questions or comments about gerunds and infinitives, please post them on one of our social media sites (Facebook or Twitter/X) and we will answer you as soon as possible.

All the best! 

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