infinitive vs gerund

Question

1. Making a web page is easy for me.2. It's easy for me making a web page.3. To make a web page is easy for me.4. It's easy for me to make a web page.Which of the above sentences is not acceptable?

Neeraj Jain · Accepted Answer

The second one.

It's easy for me to make a Web page.

Teo · Answer

1. Watching TV is fun.
2. To watch TV is fun.
3. It is fun watching TV.
4. It is fun to watch TV.

All are grammatically sound, but #2 is unidiomatic.
#4 is probably the most natural.

http://www.englishclub.com/esl-forums/viewtopic.php?t=27549&highlight =

If "It is fun watching TV." is grammatically sound, why is the following sentence NOT acceptable?

It's easy for me making a Web page.

Teo · Answer

One more question:
5. Making a web page is easy.
6. It's easy making a web page.
7. To make a web page is easy.
8. It's easy to make a web page.
Which of the above sentences is not acceptable?

Teo · Answer

5 & 8: completely acceptable
7: grammatical, but unnatural
6: acceptable for informal use only, if correctly punctuated (add a comma after 'easy')

http://www.englishclub.com/esl-forums/viewtopic.php?t=46962&sid=ae1aa1f4b09d13f22d11b91380ceb6c1

Teo · Answer

Teo wrote:

If "It is not easy getting up early." is grammatically sound, why is the following sentence NOT acceptable?

It's easy for me making a Web page.

"It is not easy for me getting up early." doesn't sound right either.

"It's easy making a Web page." sounds possible, but I'd much prefer "It's easy to make a Web page." or "Making a Web page is easy."

http://forums.eslcafe.com/student/viewtopic.php?t=25883&highlight =

Recluse · Answer

Teo1. Watching TV is fun.
2. To watch TV is fun.
3. It is fun watching TV.
4. It is fun to watch TV.

All are grammatically sound, but #2 is unidiomatic.
#4 is probably the most natural.

http://www.englishclub.com/esl-forums/viewtopic.php?t=27549&highlight =

If "It is fun watching TV." is grammatically sound, why is the following sentence NOT acceptable?

It's easy for me making a Web page.

The second one is correct. The infinitive can be a subject in a sentence.

Such as:

To speak English well isn't an easy job.

To talk with the president is a great pleasure.

Teo · Answer

1. Getting up early is not easy.

2. To get up early is not easy.

3. It is not easy getting up early.

4. It is not easy to get up early.

All can be acceptable, but 1 & 4 are the most natural. 2 is grammatically correct, but most people in conversations would use Ving to make a verbal noun in that case. 3 is a tough call--I would say this sentence with a slight pause, as in, "It's not easy, getting up early." Or, "It's hard, living away from your parents' house."

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Yankee · Answer

Teo1. Getting up early is not easy. OK

2. To get up early is not easy. Not natural

3. It is not easy getting up early. (see below)

4. It is not easy to get up early. (see below)

All can be acceptable, but 1 & 4 are the most natural. 2 is grammatically correct, but most people in conversations would use Ving to make a verbal noun in that case. 3 is a tough call--I would say this sentence with a slight pause, as in, "It's not easy, getting up early." Or, "It's hard, living away from your parents' house."

http://forums.eslcafe.com/student/viewtopic.php?t=15249&highlight =

Hi Teo

Regarding sentences 3 and 4, I'd say there is a slight difference in meaning between them.

3. It is not easy getting up early.
This suggests that "getting up early" is an activity that the speaker is currently doing -- i.e. I sense that the speaker (or someone the speaker knows) has been getting up early recently.

4. It is not easy to get up early.
To me, this is a statement of fact referring to a specific act.

Let's look at two different sentences:

3a. It is not easy outliving your children.
To me, this sentence suggests an activity and duration. Thus, it seems to refer to how emotionally difficult such a situation is. (In this case, the activity is emotional activity)

4a. It is not easy to oulive your children.
To me, this sentence is (again) a more general statement of fact referring to a specific act. Therefore, this sentence does not suggest emotional difficulty as strongly. Instead, it seems to refer to how physically difficult the specific act is -- i.e. it's difficult simply due to the fact that the children are younger.

Please note that I've used the words such as "suggest" and "seems" in my comments. I don't see the differences as absolute.

CalifJim · Answer

The structure you're asking about contains a FOR ... TO ... clause, like this basic structure:

IT IS/WAS (not) [easy, hard, difficult, pleasant, exciting, ...]
FOR subject TO verb.
(Of course these are the subject and verb of the FOR ... TO ... clause -- not the subject and verb of the sentence.)

1. Basic structure:
It is easy for me to get up early.
It was unpleasant for Jane to lose her keys.
It's hard for Helen to remember all the instructions.

Substituting a gerund for the infinitive in this structure is not possible.

*It is easy for Helen remembering all the instructions.

2. You can leave out the subject by dropping the FOR part of the FOR ... TO ... clause. This makes the subject something like (for) anybody.

It's easy to understand the rule.
It's amusing to listen to the comedy hour on the radio.
It's frightening to be in an earthquake.

Substituting a gerund for the infinitive here is possible, but I think the infinitive is more often used.

It's hard finding a parking place at this hour.
It's fun watching football games.
It's not pleasant being the last in line.

3. You can move the FOR...TO... clause to the beginning, but it's less natural and is not used often.

For John to play football is exciting.
For him to make a web page is difficult.
For Sally to be late was embarrassing.

Substituting a gerund here can make for an awkward sentence because it suggests a different meaning from the same sentence with the infinitive.

a. For John playing football is exciting says that John finds playing football exciting (no matter who plays football). To make this meaning clear, a comma can be added (For John, playing football is exciting), but it's more common to leave the FOR phrase at the end (Playing football is exciting for John.) See 4, below.

b. For John to play football is exciting says that John's participation in football playing is exciting, i.e. the excitement occurs when John plays football, and it occurs in general -- for everybody.

See Footnote at the end of this post.

4: You can move just the TO ... part of the FOR ... TO ... clause to the beginning. Again, the infinitive at the beginning is not particularly natural, so this structure is not often used.

To play chess is boring for Susan.
To arrive early is not easy for me.
To give the speech was not easy for Donald.

Substituting a gerund for the infinitive is more natural here.

Playing chess is boring for Susan.
Arriving early is not easy for us.
Giving speeches is unpleasant for the students.

5. You can drop the FOR phrase and move the TO phrase to the beginning. Again, this is not the most natural structure.

To run barefoot in the grass is pleasant.
To pay bills on time is important.
To climb Everest is not easy.

Again, substituting a gerund is more natural.

Running barefoot in the grass is pleasant.
Paying bills on time is important.
Climbing Everest is not easy.

CJ

Footnote: This gets even more complicated when you realize that there are two possible FOR phrases: The FOR ... that shows the subject of the FOR ... TO ... clause and the simple prepositional phrase with FOR that shows the person or persons affected:

It was exciting for Peter for his grandfather to talk about the old times.
For Peter, it was exciting for his grandfather to talk about the old times.
For his grandfather to talk about the old times was exciting for Peter.

(The FOR that introduces the subject of the FOR ... TO ... clause is also called "complementizing for".)

CalifJim · Answer

If "It is fun watching TV." is grammatically sound, why is the following sentence NOT acceptable?

It's easy for me making a Web page.

The answer is contained in points 1 and 2 in my previous post. The presence of the for phrase makes the substitution of the gerund for the infinitive impossible.

CJ

infinitive vs gerund

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