Unit 5.2

Verbs followed by Gerunds and Infinitives


Print This Post Print This Post

Advertising

Introduction

There are some verbs that need to be followed by a gerund or infinitive.

Form

Some verbs are used with gerunds and some with infinitive. There is no rule to distinguish them, therefore you need to learn them by heart.

The verbs followed by a gerund (a verb acting as a noun) or infinitive (the basic form of the verb preceded by to) have these structures:

  • The most commonly used verbs + gerund [verb + -ing] are: admitavoidcelebratedislikegive upmiss, suggesttolerate
  • The most commonly used verbs + infinitive [to + verb] are: agreecaredecidehopemanagepretendseemwait

Example

Verbs + gerund:

  • She admitted having committed the robbery.
  • He avoided saying his nationality.
  • We celebrated passing our driving test.
  • They suggested writing to the professor.

Verbs + infinitive:

  • I agreed to pay for the end of the year party.
  • You just don’t care to answer to our question.
  • She decided to travel for a year.
  • They hope to come back very soon. 

Use

We use verb + gerund/infinitive if we want to follow a verb with another action.

NOTE: We can use a gerund or an infinitive after a verb, but not always the meaning would be the same.

Summary

Certain verbs need to be followed by a gerund (verbs acting as nouns) or an infinitive (to + verb). There is no rule regarding this topic, therefore you need to learn them off by heart.

  • The most commonly used verbs followed by gerund are: admit, avoid, celebrate, dislike, give up, miss, suggest, tolerate
  • The most commonly used verbs followed by infinitive are: agree, care, decide, hope, manage, pretend, seem, wait

For example:
— “I admit loving you.” = The verb admit is followed by a gerund.
— “I decided to marry him.” = The verb decide is followed by an infinitive.

NOTE: In some situations, the meaning is different.

Let’s revise this content within the {Form} section. Take a look at the {Example} section that shows its use within a context.

Content Rating

Please, tell us how to improve the content here.


What did you think of our explanations and exercises?

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading...

Ambassadors

Open TextBooks are collaborative projects, with people from all over the world bringing their skills and interests to join in the compilation and dissemination of knowledge to everyone and everywhere.

Become an Ambassador and write your textbooks.

Online Teaching

Become a Books4Languages Online tutor & teacher.

More information here about how to be a tutor.

Translations


Contributors

The Books4Languages is a collaborative projects, with people from all over the world bringing their skills and interests to join in the compilation and dissemination of knowledge to everyone, everywhere.

License