Gerunds and Infinitives

Gerunds and Infinitives

Multiple Choice

Which is the Gerund in the sentence:

SHE OFFERED TO HELP ME.

• OFFERED

• TO HELP

• SHE

• THERE IS NO GERUND IN THE SENTENCE

Multiple Choice

Which is the Gerund in the sentence:

I`M NOT VERY GOOD AT PLAYING SPORTS.

• GOOD

• AT PLAYING

• PLAYING

• THERE IS NO GERUND IN THIS SENTENCE

Multiple Choice

Which is the Infinitive in the following sentence:

You promised to take the children to the movies.

• take

• to take

• to the movies

• there is no infinitive in the sentence

Multiple Choice

_________around the world has always been my dream.

• Travel

• To travel

• Traveling

• To traveling

Poll

What activity does the picture represent?

• swim

• swimming

• hobby

• sport

Multiple Choice

Have you finished _______ the house?

• to paint

• to painting

• painting

• painted

​ What’s a gerund?

A gerund is the noun form of a verb that ends in -ing. For example, playing, dancing, eating. Right away this is confusing for students, as they are used to seeing that form as the continuous/progressive form of the verb (“she is eating”, “they were dancing”).

However, a gerund is a noun, and is the subject or object of the sentence. Examples are “Cooking is my favorite hobby” (subject), or “I hate studying” (object).

​What’s an infinitive?

An infinitive is to + verb base form. For example, to play, to dance, to eat. Some people call the whole infinitive the base form, but I think it’s easier for students to think of infinitives as the two parts that they are, to + base form, and stress that they need both of these parts to form the complete infinitive.

​All verbs (except for modals) have both a gerund and an infinitive form; the trick is deciding which form we need. Here, we are focusing more on gerunds and infinitives as objects rather than subjects, though I will briefly say that, generally speaking, subjects take the gerund form.

When we use the infinitive as a subject, it usually sounds very formal or very emphatic, e.g. “To dance is to live” or “To complete your thesis is your number one priority.” However, this is much less common than just using the gerund as the subject (”Completing your thesis should be your focus right now.”)

​Rule #1:

Some verbs must be followed by gerunds I always start with the verb enjoy, because it’s perhaps one they are most familiar with.

We must say “He enjoys drinking coffee”; we can never say “He enjoys to drink coffee.”

Other verbs in this category include:

• Discuss

• Anticipate

• Despise

• Consider

• Deny

​Rule #2:

Some verbs must be followed by infinitives I like to start with want and need because they may be the most common.

“She needed to sell her house”—we cannot say “She needed selling her house.” Another example, “You wanted to change your class”; “You wanted changing your class” is incorrect.

Other verbs in this category include:

• Agree

• Ask

• Decide

• Expect

• Plan

​Rule #3:

Some verbs can be followed by both gerunds and infinitives with no change in meaning.

You may already be familiar with these three: Like, Love, Hate. This is the easiest category, because it really doesn’t matter, the meaning is exactly equal between “I hate cleaning” and “I hate to clean.”

Other verbs in this category include:

• Prefer

• Continue

• Begin

Multiple Choice

He can _____ the piano

• to play

• playing

• play

• played

Multiple Choice

He continued ___ for one hour.

• to work

• working

Multiple Select

We like______out on the weekends.

• eat

• eating

• to eat

• ate