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Alend.leo Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

continues (spreading) or (to spread)?

Good day Teachers....

I am sorry for taking your precious time.

In these two sentences

The disease continues spreading in the village.

The disease continues to spread in the village.

What is the difference between the two expressions (to spread) and (spreading)?
Is there any difference between them?
Which one is more proper according to the natives?

Thank you very much
  

Top answer

g. shtml and elsewhere, is that "continue" can take both the infinitive and the -ing form, with little difference in meaning. The more complicated answer is that for some reason "to spread" sounds considerably better to me in this case.

— GPY

  • g.
  • shtml and elsewhere, is that "continue" can take both the infinitive and the -ing form, with little difference in meaning.
  • The more complicated answer is that for some reason "to spread" sounds considerably better to me in this case.
  • I don't exactly know why.
  • There are various theories on various websites about the difference in usage between the two forms -- theories which I either don't understand or don't agree with.
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5 Answers
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The simple explanation, that you will read, e.g. at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv29.shtml and elsewhere, is that "continue" can take both the infinitive and the -ing form, with little difference in meaning. The more complicated
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Both are OK. Find the verb "continue" in the section "Followed by a to-infinitive or a gerund" here:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:English_catenative_verbs

The to-infinitive would also be my preference.
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This is a theory put up possibly just to be shot down. When you use the "ing" form it hints at the noun (gerund), so, for example, "continue raining", "continue working" sound OK since "raining" and "working" are common nouns with the correct meaning. Because "spreading" as a noun more often refers to the transitive meaning, "The disease continues spreading in the village" sounds slightly o
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alend.leoIn these two sentences The disease continues spreading in the village.The disease continues to spread in the village. ... Is there any difference ...?
There are some verbs which can take either the 'to' form or the '-ing' form with little or no difference in meaning. Often the 'to' form is preferred.

continue, start, begin, like, love, ha
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To : GPY, AlpheccaStars and CalifJim

Thank you very much.

I really appreciate your helping me.
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