Gerunds & Infinitives

It is important to realise that verbos cannot be learnt in isolation. You should learn what follows each verb in order to use it accurately.

          GERUND:

We use gerund in the following cases:

 - After verbs such as involve, avoid, consider, mind ans risk.

         EX: Do you mind telling me what you are doing?

 -After many verbs which expresses like or dislikes, such as love, hate, loathe, enjoy.

          EX: I love cooking.

 - As a subject or object:

        EX: Eating is not permitted on the premises. 

 - After prepositions, phrasal verbs and expressions ending in a preposition:

        EX: He burnt the letter after reading it.

        INFINITIVE:

We use the bare infinitive (infinitive without to):

  - After modal verbs: 

         EX: We should listen to what he says.

  - After make and let:

         EX: They made me wear school uniform.

                 You wouldn't let me play.

  

We use the full infinitive (infinitive with to):

  - To express a reason or purpose:

    EX: He enrolled in the evening classes to improve his German.

  -After certain verbs such as appear  manage, seem, want, intend, plan, decide, would like and prefer.

  - Verbs which have two objects: encourage, request, advise, recommend, tell and ask.

  - EX: His mother encouraged him to apply for the course.

But there are some verbs which take both the infinitive or the gerund with a change of meaning.
 These verbs are, for example, like, try, stop, remember, hate and mean.


Let's do some exercises to check: