Gerunds and Infinitives

Gerunds and Infinitives

Unit: Help!

Gerund and infinitive

• Identify rules and forms to use verbs followed by gerunds and infinitives

When to Use Gerunds and Infinitives: 5 Simple Rules for English Learners

Look at these questions...

• What is your hobby?

• What do you love doing?

• Going to the beach? Playing video games? Hiking (walking)? Singing? Dancing?

Nice! These are all examples of gerunds.

• Now, what if I ask you what you want to do every day?

• Maybe you are learning to draw. Maybe all you want to do is to read comic books. Maybe you are planning to start your own business. Or maybe you will soon decide to travel the world!

• 
  

These are also hobbies, aren’t they? But we used infinitives to describe them.

Explanation:

Gerunds and infinitives are very common in the English language.

They can be used in many situations.

Sometimes you may use an infinitive and a gerund.

Sometimes you have to choose between the two, because using one may be completely wrong.

Does it get confusing? Yes it does!

And knowing the difference between them and using them correctly are essential to speaking English properly, especially in business English settings.

What Is an Infinitive? What Is a Gerund?

An infinitive is the verb form that has “to” at the beginning. For example, “to do,” “to sleep,” “to love” and “to create.”

It is the simplest verb form that you have to modify to fit into sentences.

For example, “She sleeps” no longer contains the infinitive of the verb “to sleep.” Instead, it has been conjugated into the simple present third person form of the verb “to sleep”: sleeps.

Infinitives are easy!

How about gerunds?

Gerunds are formed by adding “-ing” to the verb: “sleeping,” “drawing,” “swimming.” But they are not the “-ing” verb forms that you see in the present or past continuous tense.

They look the same, but gerunds are actually verb forms used as nouns.

Let’s take the infinitive of the verb “to sleep” and use it in two different sentences:

I am sleeping.

This is the present continuous. “Sleeping” here is part of the verb. It is not a gerund. Here’s the second sentence:

I don’t like sleeping.

This is present simple, but it contains a gerund. “Sleeping” is the direct object of this sentence.

Now that you know the difference between infinitives and gerunds, let’s introduce the rules that will help you use both correctly.

Now, Lets see the following PREZI

study the rules!