UNIVERSIDAD DE NARIÑO

USING GERUNDS AND INFINIVES

TEACHER: Leonardo Florez

GERUNDS AND INFINITIVES

Hello guys, as we could see in our class, using gerunds and infinitives may be tricky. For that reason, I
am providing you with a more detailed explanation, so that you could practise and be better prepared
for the quiz.
REMEMBER,
GERUNDS
We can use them as nouns.
 LISTENING TO music helps me relax.
After some prepositions.
 We are INTO TAKING UP Italian lessons.

FULL INFINITIVES
They express purpose.
Julieth is studying English TO BECOME a teacher who stands out from the rest.
They also appear after certain adjectives.
 It’s ESSENTIAL TO UNDERSTAND this topic, so you use it when you speak.
They are also found after TOO & ENOUGH.
 It’s TOO late TO GO BACK home, you’d better stay here.

BARE INFINITIVES
Bare infinitives are found after MODAL VERBS.
 Maria Fernanda CAN DO lots of activities at the same time, she is good at multitasking.
They also appear after HAD BETTER & WOULD RATHER.
GIVING A STRONG PIECE OF ADVICE
A. Gabriela: I can’t understand this topic at all. It’s quite confusing.
Leonardo: You’D BETTER DEVELOP more exercises. The more, the better.
TALKING ABOUT PREFERENCES

B. LUCY: Leo, do you fancy going for a coffee late this afternoon?
LEO: I’m afraid, I WOULD RATHER PREPARE a document for my students this
afternoon.

A SHORT LIST OF VERBS PATTERNS.

Here you find a list of verbs that you must memorise to know how to use them.

THE GERUND THE INFINITIVE

GROUP GROUP
VERB-ING TO VERB
Admit Afford
Fancy Agree
Postpone Arrange
Avoid Decide
Finish Deserve
Risk Fail
Consider Forget
Imagine Hope
Stop** Learn
Deny Manage
Keep ON Offer
Suggest Plan
Enjoy Promise
Mind Refuse
Threaten

INFINTIVE OR GERUND DIFFERENT MEANING

Ok, so we already know that some verbs accept either INFINITIVE or GERUNDS. However, the
problem comes when the meaning of those verbs changes according to what they are followed by.
Then, I am trying TO EXPLAIN this topic a little bit further by showing you some more examples.
1. TRY
There are various cases that you should learn before you get to use this verb more confidently.
TRY + TO VERB
1ST CASE
Something seems challenging, so you MAKE an effort to succeed at that.
For instance,
Andres felt so lost after Professor Leo explained this topic. For that reason, Andres TRIED TO
STUDY and LOOK for material to further understand this topic. In the cases above, Andres MADE
AN EFFORT to understand what his professor had explained.
There are a wide range of cases where we make effort to achieve something we desire.
-Angela HAS TRIED TO BE the best at everything she does.
-My students ARE TRYING TO OVERCOME some technical difficulties to comply with their
classes.
- Anderson and Valentina keep TRYING TO SORT their problems OUT.

2ND CASE
We wish we were very successful whenever we attempt to do something, but unfortunately, most of
the times we failed at that. When we talk about our UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPS, we also use TRY
+ INFINITIVE.
For instance,
-Daniel and Alejandro TRIED TO FINISH their assignments before the deadlines, but they were so
busy that they could not.
- Maria Fernanda TRIES TO PAY attention to the lesson, but her brother will not care about her. ☹
- Professor Florez HAS TRIED TO TEACH this amazing topic, but his students haven’t learnt it yet.
☹

TRY + VERB
3rd CASE
Look at these situations:
BRIGITH: Guys, I’ve made this cake!
LUNA: it looks yummy!
GABRIELA: Brigith is an excellent baker, you SHOULD definitely TRY it.
LUNA: ???
Luna HAS NOT TRIED Brigith’s cakes, but this time she feels a lot like doing that.
There are various times when we must try something new to see if we like it or not, if it works or not,
etc. At first you try that and eventually that produces some results. For instance,
1.
JULIETH: I can cook, but I am not that good!
MAYORI- TRY FOLLOWING some recipes! You might become an expert at cooking.

2.
LEO: For God’s sake! My printer is jammed again! ☹
KAREN: Let me see, I can TRY REMOVING all the paper from the tray and then RELOADING it.
That is what usually works for me!
LEO: Oh, could you please?
KAREN: Sure thing!
Some minutes later…
KAREN: Look! It worked!
LEO: Oh, thank you Karen, you are a life saviour!
4th CASE
We sometimes try things, but we are not very satisfied with the result or we simple want to redo it. For
example,
-Tatiana did not like the way her hair looked, so she TRIED STYLING it a little bit more. But, it
looked like a bird nest, so she had a hairdresser do it the usual way.
-Angela wanted to redecorate her house. Then, she TRIED PAINTING it with lime green and
fluorescent yellow paint. She then realised she did not like it because it looked like a muppets’ house.

2. VERBS SUCH AS NEED, REQUIRE and WANT.

5th CASE
NEED + TO VERB

I NEED TO DO SOMETHING IT IS NECESSARY TO DO SOMETHING

This is only the usual meaning of the verb NEED. For instance,
- Andres NEEDS TO STUDY more.
- Ashley NEEDED TO CHILL after a very tedious week she had.
- Juliana and Jesus NEED TO MOVE before their house is turned down.
- Nayarith NEEDS TO TAKE PART in class more often.
- Leo NEEDS TO GO on holidays before it is too late.
6TH CASE
NEED VERB-ING
When NEED is followed by a gerund, it takes a passive sense. If you remember, passive voice
sentences emphasise on the object rather than the subject. Look at the following sentences.
-I NEED TO IRON my clothes.
- My clothes NEED IRONING.
Whenever we use NEED + GERUND, the subject is generally an object from an active voice sentence.
In those sentences, the gerund can be replaced by a TO BE (PAST PARTICIPLE)
-My clothes NEED IRONING My clothes need TO BE IRONED.
-My washing up NEEDS DOING My washing up needs TO BE DONE.
- The sheets NEED CHANGING The sheets need TO BE CHANGED.
-My mobile phone NEEDS CHARGING My mobile phone needs TO BE CHARGED.

3. HELP
7TH CASE
HELP + TO VERB or HELP VERB (without “TO”)
This is the usual meaning of the verb help. However, it could be followed by a full infinitive or a bare
infinitive as follows.
Everybody HELPED TO CLEAN UP after the party / Everybody HELPED CLEAN UP after the
party.
8TH CASE

CAN’T HELP + VERB-ING

This means that you are unable to avoid a situation or you simple can’t stop it from happening. For
example,
-I CAN’T HELP SMILING when I see a cat.
-People CAN’T HELP MOCKING this ridiculous president, he is a laughingstock.
-When my cousin and I were children, we COULDN’T HELP BURSTING OUT LAUGUING when
we were taken to funerals.

4. REMEMBER
9TH CASE
REMEMBER + TO VERB =
Carlos REMEMBERS TO BUY milk.
There are 2 actions in this sentence. The first action happens before the second action:

Action 1: Carlos REMEMBERS.

Action 2: Carlos BUYS MILK.
Carlos does not forget. He thinks and recalls that he must not forget to buy milk. Therefore,
the meaning of REMEMBER + TO VERB is: DON’T FORGET to do an action that happens
after the thought.
- I REMEMBERED TO PREPARE this document when I was about to go to bed.

10TH CASE
REMEMBER + VERB-ING
When remember is followed by a gerund it means we have remembered something that happened in
the past. In short, you can recall the memory and have an image of it in your mind. We use
REMEMBER + GERUND to talk about actions in the past. We do the action first and then later
remember it.
- Gabriela REMEMBERS LEARNING this before On this sentence, you can replace that
for
GABRIELA REMEMBERS HAVING LEANRT this before.

5. FORGET
11TH CASE
FORGET + TO VERB
This is the opposite of REMEMBER + TO VERB. It's when you want to do something, but you
forget about it. For instance,

 I FORGOT TO CALL my mother. (= I wanted to call my mother, but when it was a

good time to call her, I forgot. I was thinking about something else, and the idea to
call my mother didn't come into my head).
 She keeps FORGETTING TO BRING his book back.

12TH CASE

FORGET + VERB-ING
This is the opposite of REMEMBER + GERUND. It's when you forget about a memory, something
that you've done in the past.
-Have we really studied this topic before? I FORGET READING about it.
-I’ll never FORGET SEEING his face.

6. REGRET
13TH CASE
REGRET + TO VERB
We generally use REGRET + TO VERB (TO INFORM, TO TELL, TO LET SOMEONE KNOW)
to announce bad news. This is when we feel sorry because we HAVE TO SAY something that might
not be nice. For instance,
DIANA: Hi Professor Florez, they told me that you were looking for me.
PROFESSOR FLOREZ: Well, yes, I REGRET TO INFORM that you’ve failed this semester. 
This means, I AM SORRY TO TELL YOU THIS!
14TH CASE
REGRET + VERB-ING
This is the normal use of the verb REGRET. In this case, we did or did not do something and now we
feel bad about it. For example,
-She REGRETTED BEING late for the interview.
-I REGRET SPENDING so much time on this topic.--> We already spent so much time on this topic
☹
- You'll REGRET NOT FINISHING university.

OTHER VERBS TO KEEP IN MIND!

15TH CASE
MEAN + TO VERB INTEND TO
I MEANT TO GO back to Scotland before the virus outbreak.
16TH CASE
MEAN + VERB-ING EXPRESSES WHAT THE RESULT OF AN ACTION WILL BE, OR
WHAT WILL BE NECESSARY. A similar meaning could be “involve” or “have as a result”:
 Being a teacher MEANS PREPARING yourself a lot through the years.
17TH CASE
GO ON + TO VERB  He was fed up with that topic and WENT ON TO ASSIGN the final oral
presentation. (Here the person said or did something new.)
18TH CASE
GO ON + VERB-ING  He WENT ON EXPLAINING gerunds and infinitives. (Here the person
continued doing the same thing)
19th CASE
STOP + INFINITVE This is an ellipsis case, there is always something implicit that we must stop
in order to do another action. For instance,
- Before going to take their bus, they STOPPED TO GET milk at a pound shop.  here GOING
FOR THE BUS was the activity that needed to be stopped, but we don’t say it.
Remember that there is always an activity hidden when we use STOP+ INFINITIVE. Look at the
following examples,
 I STOPPED TO THINK OF more examples for this doc- (I was typing, so implicitly, I
STOPPED typing TO THINK OF more examples)
 Yesterday I was so tired of doing exercise that I STOPPED TO DRINK some water.
20th CASE
I stopped to talk to her.
I STOPPED TAKING TO her.
Where does the action not happen anymore?
Well, if you answered that in the second one, you are right. STOP+ GERUND means that we do not
do an activity any longer.
You know what guys, there are different thing I have stopped doing because of the pandemic.
I HAVE STOPPED MEETING UP with my friends!
I HAVE STOPPED GOING to University.
I HAVE STOPPED WATCHING the news as they get me sorely depressed.
I HAVE STOPPED SMILING a bit…  very dramatic Lol

PRACTICE
Alright guys! After this whole explanation, you are meant to write your own examples for each one of
the cases studied above. You are expected to write 20 sentences with some context behind.
Additionally, I am posting some exercises for you to practise. However, I will not be able to check
every answer, but if there is any doubt, please let me know when we see each other. DO NOT
PLAGIARISE examples from the net or you’ll get zero.
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