Gerunds and Infinitives with 10 Common Verbs

Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody! My name is Alisha. In this lesson, we’re going to look at gerunds and infinitives with 10 common verbs.

Let’s get started!

First, let’s talk about what even is an infinitive? What is a gerund? Let’s break these two very important concepts down and then we’ll get into the main part of the lesson.

First, let’s look at the infinitive. What is an infinitive?

So, an infinitive is very simple. It’s just the “to [verb]” form. So when you see “to + [the verb],” you’re looking at the infinitive form. You might find this form of the verb if you look in a dictionary. This is called the infinitive form.

So, the infinitive form communicates the feeling of in order to, in order to do (something), or it communicates a (potential) future action, so something that might happen in the future, something that is going to happen in the future and so on. So this is the thing that infinitive refers to.

Let’s compare this to gerund. So, a gerund is this form. So this [verb] + -ing. So you might think, isn’t that the same thing as like the progressive form of a verb? And the answer is yes? On paper, the spelling is 100% the same. However, the key difference here is that a gerund, while it uses this same [verb] -ing form is taking the place of a noun. So, we’ll see this in our example sentences later today. So, the key here is the grammatical position that the word is different, but yes, it does use that [verb] -ing form, which is the same as the progressive form of a verb.

So, a gerund communicates an actual activity or an actual action, something that is happening or something that happens and so on. So, let’s break down now some very common verbs and let’s take a look at when we use infinitives, when we use gerunds with this verb, if we can use both and so on. Because actually, in English, sometimes, we have only an infinitive we can use with the verb. Sometimes, we have only a gerund we can use. Sometimes, we can use both and sometimes, we can use both, but the meaning changes. So, as you can imagine, this is a lot of information to think about and it takes some time to get used to which verbs take which form and so on.

So in this lesson, I’m going to break down some very common verbs and talk about some really important notes so that you can use them correctly.

Okay, so let’s get started by taking a look at the first verb over here, a very easy one, as you can see. The verb “finish,” the verb finish. We cannot use the verb finish with a “to [verb].” We don’t use finish to [verb]. We dont’ use it in this way.

So, let’s talk about now the other side of this so that you can see how we should use finish when we’re connecting to other verbs. We use the verb “finish” with a gerund. So, what does this look like?

Here are two example sentences:

“He finished working at 6.”

“Working” is the gerund in the -ing form.

Here - “She’ll finish cooking soon.”

“She’ll finish cooking soon.”

Here is the gerund, “cooking.”

So in these sentences, again, we have the gerund form and this is the only form that we can use with the verb “finish.” So if we imagine this, the same verb with the verb “finish” over here, we cannot apply an infinitive rule. So, for example, “He finished to work at 6” is incorrect, and “She’ll finish to cook soon” is also incorrect.

So, when you use the verb “finish,” make sure that you connect it to the next verb with this gerund form.

Okay, so, this is our first example. We’ll go one by one through all of the examples like this and take a look at which form is appropriate for each verb.

Okay, so let’s take a look at the next verb. So, the next verb is actually two verbs. We can use the same rule for the verbs “start” and “begin.” So, start and begin can both be used with the infinitive after the verb.

So, our example:

“The little girl started to cry.”

Here is our infinitive verb “to cry.”

And…

“We should begin to plan our next product.”

So, both of these example sentences contain the infinitive form, “to cry” and “to plan” and they communicate some upcoming future action or in this case, this action here, the little girl started to cry is like saying it’s the beginning of this future action. That’s what we’re communicating here.

So, let’s compare this to using these with the gerund form. So, “start” and “begin” can also be used with the gerund form.

“The little girl started crying.”

And “We should begin planning our next product.”

So, we can use both forms with these verbs and they communicate the same idea.

Okay, let’s continue to our nex verb.

The next verb is “stop,” stop.

You’ll notice I’ve marked this with a blue star. We have some special notes for this verb, but first, let’s take a look at the example sentences.

First - “Let’s stop to eat at this restaurant.”

“Let’s stop to eat at this restaurant.”

So imagine you’re driving in a car perhaps and you see a restaurant that looks good for lunch.

“Ah, let’s stop to eat at this restaurant.” So in other words, let’s stop in order to eat at this restaurant.

And our second example:

“He stopped to smoke.”

So, for example, he was walking down the street, he stopped walking in order to smoke. That’s what this sentence communicates.

So, let’s compare this example sentences with the infinitive form to the example sentences with the gerund form. “Stop” is an example of a verb that can take both the infinitive and the gerund forms. However, the meaning changes, so let’s take a look at this.

Our first example:

“Let’s stop eating at this restaurant.”

So, we have “stop” and “eating.” Eating is our gerund. This sentence means we should not eat at this restaurant again. So, “stop” eating at this restaurant means maybe we ate at this restaurant many times, but something happened this time. Maybe you go to the restaurant and there were bugs in the restaurant or the food is terrible or it’s very expensive or the staff is very rude. Something bad happens and you say, “Let’s stop eating at this restaurant. This is what the gerund form expresses. Remember, the infinitive form was “Let’s stop to eat at this restaurant,” which means let’s stop the car and go for food at this restaurant. This one communicates we don’t want to eat here anymore, so this is big change. “Let’s stop [gerund]...” communictes let’s not do this thing any longer.

Let’s look at one more example:

“He stopped smoking.”

This sentence means he stopped the habit of smoking. So maybe he was a smoker, he smoked cigarettes for a very long time and then one day, he decided to change that habit. “He stopped smoking.” So this, again, is completely finishing a behavior.

In our first example with the infinitive form, “He stopped to smoke,” this communicates stopping one action one time in order to do another action. However, with the gerund form, it means completely stopping or completely finishing an action. So please keep this in mind. Both are completely correct. Both example sets are completely correct, but stop takes the infinitive and the gerund and it communicates different ideas, depending on which one you choose. So, this is a very important one to keep in mind.

Okay, let’s continue to our next verb.

The next verb is “decide,” decide.

Let’s look at the first example, “decide.”

“They decided to leave.”

So, in this situation, we have “to leave” as our infinitive verb and in this case, we’re communicating some upcoming action. There’s a future action. They decided to leave, so that sounds like they are going to leave very soon.

Our second example:

“She decided to move to a new house.”

So again, this sentence with “to move” in the infinitive communicates an upcoming action, a future action, something that is going to happen. “She decided to move to a new house.” So, this how we use the verb “decide” with the infinitive form.

Over here, “decide” cannot be used with the gerund form. We cannot use the -ing form after the verb “decide.”

For example:

“They decided leaving” is incorrect.”

Or “She decided moving,” also incorrect.

We cannot use “decide” in the same way as we do with the infinitive form, so you don’t have to worry about it here.

Okay, great! Let’s continue on to the next one.

The next one is “practice,” practice. So, I’ve marked this with a red triangle to kind of show you a warning a little bit. So, practice cannot be used in exactly the same way with the infinitive and the gerund forms. Actually, we use “practice” most of the time with the gerund form, I’ll show you these example sentences in just a second, but there are a couple of sentence structures where we do see the infinitive form used with “practice.”

So, I wanna start actually with the gerund form over here because it’s more common with this verb. So, let’s take a look at how we use “practice” with the gerund.

First example sentence:

“She practiced singing yesterday.”

So, in this sentence, “singing” is the activity for the practice, okay?

In the second example:

“We should practice cooking this.”

So, if you have a very complicated recipe, for example, you might say “We should practice cooking this.” So again, cooking is the activity for practice, okay? So, we are expressing some kind of activity that you want to do many times in order to get better at that thing, so we use the gerund form to do that.

On the other hand, the infinitive, we don’t really use the infinitive to do this. We don’t say “She practiced to sing yesterday” or “We should practice to cook this.” This doesn’t really communicate the same feel as we have with the gerund form, so we use the gerund form to talk about our practice activities.

As I mentioned, however, there are a couple of sentence structures that we do see “practice” used with the infinitive and those are sentences like this. In these sentences, we’re not talking about the specific activity we are practicing. Actually, these sentences are just about the reason for practice. So let’s look at what I mean.

First - “I need to practice to get better.”

“I need to practice to get better.”

So, this sentence means I need to practice in order to get better.

Let’s look at the second example:

“You should practice to improve your skills.”

So, you should practice in order to improve your skills. So, in sentence patterns like this where the focus is on our actual improvement and skills, we’re rebuilding the skills, we can use the infinitive form in this way. However, when you want to talk about the actual subject you’re practicing, you should use the gerund form. So this is a very important and key difference with the verb “practice,” so we use them in different ways. Okay, great!

Let’s continue on to the next group. The next group is actually three. I have “like,” “love,” and “hate” here, and we can also use other emotion and mental-state related verbs, but I want to focus on these three because they are very common in everyday communication.

So, we can use “like,” “love,” and “hate” with the infinitive form and with the gerund form and there is no change in meaning. So, that’s hopefully a relief for you. You don’t have to worry so much about these verbs. Let’s take a look.

So, first - “He loves to hike.”

“He loves to hike.”

And “She hates to lose.”

“She hates to lose.”

And “We like to watch movies.”

“We like to watch movies.”

So, all of these communicate this idea of something that we feel emotional about, some kind of regular activity that we enjoy or that we dislike. We can do the same thing with the gerund form and it’s perfectly correct.

“He loves hiking.”

“She hates losing.”

And “We like watching movies.”

“We like watching movies.”

So these sentences, no matter which one you choose, you’re going to communicate the same idea.

So, this form and this form, there’s really not a difference between the two. So, I hope that this one gives you a sense of relief. You don’t have to worry so much about this.

Okay, let’s move on to the next one though. The next few are some very intense topics, so we have a lot to talk about here.

So first, let’s take a look at the verb “remember,” remember.

So, our example sentences:

“He remembered to buy milk.”

And “We didn’t remember to watch the movie.”

“We didn’t remember to watch the movie.”

So here, the infinitive form, “He remembered to buy…” okay? So, in other words, another way to say this is “He did not forget to buy milk,” right? He remembered to buy milk and we didn’t remember to watch the movie. We didn’t remember to watch the movie. We have the infinitive forms here.

Okay. So, these sentences, the meaning is pretty clear, right? So, these are actions we remembered to do, right?

Let’s compare this though to the gerund use of remember, because we communicate something very different here.

“He remembered buying milk.”

This sentence means he remembered the activity of buying milk. That means he remembers his actions, he remembers going to the store and talking to the staff at the store and giving them money and taking the milk home. He remembered all of that. He remembered the activity of buying milk, okay. This is what that sentence communicates with the gerund form. He remembered that action, specific action.

Second example:

“We didn’t remember watching the movie.”

So, this sentence, again, we have the negative here, this sentence means we, the speakers, the group of people, they do not remember the activity of watching the movie. So this sounds like they watched the movie, but they don’t remember any of it. They don’t remember. Maybe they were very tired or maybe there was some other thing happening. They were very stressed out or something like that, so they do not remember the activity, the action of watching the movie. That is what this grammar choice, this gerund here communicates this idea that the specific action itself is the thing that the person does not remember. So, this is a key difference with the gerund form and the infinitive. Here, we’re talking about the action, remembering to do a thing and on the other hand, we’re talking about the experience itself. So this a key difference here. We’re going to do this again with the next verb as well. So, this is our first one.

So, this is our first one. Let’s look at a similar pattern that we have with our next verb then. The verb “forget” is the same idea as remember. It’s just the opposite, right? Remember and forget, they have the same rule that applies.

So let’s look at our examples.

“He forgot to meet me.”

So here, we have our infinitive, “He forgot to meet…” He forgot to meet me. So, in this case, some activities, some meeting was scheduled and he forgot. So, I was planning to meet him, he forgot, okay? So, this is just one action, a one-time thing. He forgot to do this action.

Second example:

“She forgot to email the file.”

So, I had a plan to email the file or something or rather, she had a plan to email the file, she forgot. She forgot to do that action. So, we have the same feeling that we just talked about with “remember,” yes? This was a one-time thing. “He forgot to meet me this one time, and she forgot to email this thing the one time.

On the other hand, when we use the gerund form here, we’re talking about the whole experience, forgetting the whole experience.

So, “He forgot meeting me.”

“He forgot meeting me” means we met maybe a long time ago, but he forgot. So, this has probably happened to many people. You meet someone one time, very quickly in the past, and maybe you meet them again in the future like, “Who are you? Sorry, I don’t remember meeting you” or “I forgot meeting you.” So this means the experience of meeting that person, the complete experience is gone. You forgot about that.

Let’s look at our second example:

“She forgot emailing the file.”

This means she did email the file. She emailed the file, but she forgot about doing it. She forgot. She was doing lots of different things that day where she forgot about that specific experience of emailing the file. So we can use this to talk about the entire experiences we forget. Sometimes, there’s just part of our day we don’t remember, right? We can express that with this.

So, “forget” and “remember” take the same kind of special meaning when we have the gerund form, and we use them in the infinitive form just to talk about those one-time actions that we forget or remember.

Okay, great! Let’s continue on to our last two verbs. We have some more notes to talk about here, but they’re very important. So, let’s talk about how we use “go” with the gerund now because it is very different, but it’s also correct to use “go” with the gerund form of a verb.

So, we use “go” with gerunds generally when we’re talking about an activity like hobbies or sports, things that we like to do outside the house. We can use the gerund form to express this.

For example:

“They went surfing.”

So, these expresses an activity they left their home to do. “They went surfing.”

Second example:

“She goes swimming once a month.”

So it sounds kind of unnatural to use the infinitive form here as in “She goes to swim once a month.” We usually use the gerund form when we talk about our hobbies or our activities. On the other hand, if we try to use the gerund form in these sentences, it sounds very, very strange. It’s not correct, so don’t use it.

For example:

“He went buying milk an hour ago.”

Don’t use that. It’s nto correct.

And - “She went picking up her friend.”

Also not correct. We cannot use those.

So please keep in mind that when we use “go” and we’re talking about our errands and our everyday tasks, we use the infinitive to express that. If you want to talk about your hobbies, your favorite activities and sports, use the gerund to express that.

Okay, great! We’re almost at the end. Let’s talk about our last verb here. So, the last verb is “try,” try. There are a couple of different uses I want to talk about in this lesson. So, I first want to talk about how we use try to mean attempt something.

So, let’s look at our example:

“He tried to cook dinner.”

So we can understand this as he attempted to cook dinner. He did his best to cook dinner. So, here, we have “to cook” as the infinitive, “He tried to cook dinner,” okay.

Second example:

“They tried to unlock the door.”

So, again, they attempted to unlock the door is what this means.

So, we can use this use of “try” with the gerund form as well.

So, “He tried cooking dinner.”

“He tried cooking dinner.”

So, he attempted cooking dinner. He attempted the task of cooking dinner.

And “They tried unlocking the door.”

So, they attempted this action, right? They attempted the action of unlocking the door. So we can use “try” in this way to talk about attempting to do things. This is totally fine. However, there are some situations in which it doesn’t sound good to use the gerund form with “try” and that’s when, I’ll move to this side, that’s when we use try to talk about our habits.

So, for example, in this example sentence, it says…

“I try to exercise 3 times a week.”

We use this to talk about our future actions, right, as we discussed earlier. We’re talking about something that we do as part of our everyday routine or our regular weekly routine.

We cannot use “try” in this way with the gerund form.

For example:

“I try exercising 3 times a week.”

That sounds very strange because we generally use “try” to refer to attempts when we use the gerund form. “I try exercising 3 times a week” sounds quite strange.

And our second example:

“She tries to save money every month.”

As a habit. So, if we say, “She tries saving money every month,” it sort of sounds like one big experience that she attempts each month. It doesn’t really communicate the feeling of a habit that we have when we use the infinitive form.

So, if you want to express a habit to talk about something you always try to do each month, use the infinitive form. If you want to talk about attempting something, you can use the gerund form or the infinitive form to do that.

All right! That was a lot of information, I know. Gerunds and infinitives have lots and lots of possibilities and if you feel kind of confused, that’s okay. There’s a lot of information to take in. This is one of those things that just takes time and practice. I really recommend you do some reading practice, of course, and do some listening practice as well to get the feel for which is the most natural to use, the infinitive form or gerund form.

In this lesson, I covered some very, very common verbs and there are lots and lots of other verbs out there, but the truth is that we have to look at each verb on a case-by-case basis, because as we saw, there are some verbs that just takes some special care.

So, I hope this lesson gave you a good introduction to gerunds and infinitives. Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon. Bye!

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