WEEK 8_CHAPTER 16_The infinitive and the ‘-ing’ form

THE INFINITIVE AND GERUND

I. The bare infinitive and the to-infinitive
1. Forms of the infinitive
Active Passive
present infinitive (not) (to) ask (not) (to) be asked
present progressive (not) (to) be asking ---
infinitive
perfect or past (not) (to) have asked (not) (to) have been
infinitive asked
perfect/ past (not) (to) have been ---
progressive infinitive asking

E.g.,
Active Passive
present infinitive I want to invite them I want to be invited to
to the party. the party.
present progressive Beth’s health seems ---
infinitive to be improving.
perfect or past I’d like to invite all of I’d like to be invited to
infinitive my friends to the the pary.
party.
perfect/ past He must have been ---
progressive infinitive waiting for ages.

2. The bare infinitive

Verbs Examples
let Let’s (=let us) go to the cinema.
My mother won’t let me go with him.
make She makes her son do a lot of homework.
would rather I’d rather stay at home than go out tonight. (Active)
(not) I would rather be told the truth. (Passive)
→preference I would rather not go out tonight.
would sooner I ‘d sooner go to Spain.
(not) I would sooner not go to school today.
→preference
had better I’d better go now before the traffic gets too bad.
(not) She had better get here soon or she’ll miss the opening
ceremony.
You’d better not tell his mom about the broken glass. She’ll
go crazy.
have My mom has me clean the house every weekend.
 3. The to-infinitive
Verbs Examples
Purpose:
(not) to I study English to communicate with foreigners.
so as (not) to She works part-time jobs so as to gain experience.
in order (not) She went home early in order not to be scolded.
to
Adjectives He was kind to help us.
It was kind (of him) to help us.
Too/enough She is gorgeous enough to become a model.
He is too weak to carry those heavy books.
Noun My decision to wait was wise.
My determination to get the degree makes my father proud
of me.
His refusion to help makes her disappointed.
Verbs followed by to-infinitive
agree He agreed to help me.
afford My friend can’t afford to buy a house.
arrange, ask, begin, choose, continue, decide, demand, fail, forget, hope,
intend, learn, manage, need, offer, plan, prefer, pretend, promise, refuse,
try, want, etc.
Verb + Noun + to-infinitive
advise His father advised him to study abroad.
ask The manager asked everybody not to take a day off.
allow, enable, encourage, force, invite, order, persuade, remind, tell, warn,
etc.

4. Bare-infinitive and To-infinitive

Verbs Examples
help My father helps me (to) fix the bicycle.
The teacher tries to help the children not to worry too much
about their exams.
know I’ve never known her (to) be late before.
I’ve never known to have/ to have had a quick temper as a
boy.
dare I didn’t dare (to) go out after dark.

II. The ‘-ing’ form (gerund)

1. Forms of Gerund
Active Passive
present gerund (not) asking (not) being asked
present progressive --- ---
gerund
 perfect or past (not) having asked (not) having been
gerund asked
perfect/ past --- ---
progressive gerund

E.g.,
Active Passive
present gerund I hate asking people I hate being asked my
their age. age.
present progressive --- ---
gerund
perfect or past I’m proud of having I disliked having been
gerund completed the race. ignored.
perfect/ past --- ---
progressive gerund

2. Functions
Gerund as Examples
Verb_ing She is playing with her children.
(Continuous They were having dinner at this time yesterday.
Tenses)
Adjectives It is the most famous shopping mall.
She is an amazing girl.
Nouns My favorite sport is swimming. (subject complement)
Swimming is good for health. (subject)
My sister enjoys swimming. (object)
Her classmates are excellent at swimming. (object of
preposition)

3. Verbs followed by a gerund

Verb Examples
avoid She avoids meeting her mom.
admit The boy admitted stealing money.
consider, deny, dislike, enjoy, fancy, feel like, finish, give up, imagine,
involve, keep on, go on, carry on, mind, miss, practice, put off, risk, etc.

4. Phrases followed by a gerund

Verb/ Phrase Examples
After preposition He left the restaurant without paying.
be used to/ get She got used to living in a big city.
used to/ be
accustomed to
 It’s no good, It’s no good trying to persuade me. You won’t succeed.
It’s no use It’s no use worrying about what happened. There’s nothing
you can do about it.
It’s worth It’s a nice town. It’s worth spending a few days there.
It’s (just) not worth Our flight was very early in the morning, so it wasn’t worth
going to bed.
There’s no point in There’s no point in having a car if you never use it.
What’s the use/ What is the use/ point of having a car if you never use it?
point of
There’s nothing There’s nothing worse than feeling ill in a strange place.
worse than

can’t help, can’t She can’t help laughing when she saw it.
bear, can’t stand I can’t stand waiting for buses.
have fun We had great fun comparing our baby photographs.
have a good time
have trouble I had no trouble finding a place to stay.
have difficulty People sometimes have difficulty reading my writing.
have a problem Did you have a problem getting a visa?
spend time/money He spent hours trying to repair the clock.
waste time/money I waste a lot of time doing nothing.
find noun/ pronoun Men always found her extremely attractive.
+ V_ing
go + V_ing go sailing, go swimming, go fishing, go riding, go hiking, go
(sports, activities) surfing, go scuba diving, go skiing, go jogging, go camping

III. Infinitive vs Gerund

Verbs Examples
watch She watched him enter the building.
perception

(I saw the complete action from start to finish.)

Verbs of

She watched him entering the building.

(I saw him in the middle of doing something)
see, look at, notice, observe, hear, listen to, feel, smell, catch, etc.
Adjectives It’s difficult to speak English well.
It’s difficult speaking English well.

It was pleasant to lie in the sun.

It was pleasant lying in the sun.
Verbs followed by to-infinitive and gerund (same meaning)
start It started raining.
begin It started to rain.
It’s starting to rain. (not usually It’s starting raining.)
continue It continues raining.
It continues to rain.
intend John intends buying a house.
John intends to buy a house.
bother Don’t bother locking the door.
Don’t bother to lock the door.
Verbs followed by to-infinitive and gerund (different meanings)
to-infinitive gerund (V_ing)
remember = do not forget to do = have a memory of something
something I remember meeting her once.
Remember to save your It must have been five years
work often, just in case ago.
your computer crashes.

regret = I am sorry that I have to = something which happened

say
British Airways regret to
announce the cancellation
of flight.
go on = do something new
After discussing the
economy, the president
went on to talk about
foreign policy.
try = make an effort to do
something
I tried to move the table,
but it was too heavy. (so I
couldn’t move it.)
need = active meaning
My dad needs to fix the
chair.
in the past
I have always regretted not
having studied harder at school
= continue
The president paused for a
moment and then went on
talking.
= do it as an experiment
I didn’t like the way the
furniture was arranged, so I
tried moving the table to the
other side of the room. (=I
moved it to see if it looked
better.)
= passive meaning
The chair needs fixing.