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Jooney Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Like+to infinitival

Hi,

One of my grammar book says about the construction of "like+to infinitival" as follows:

"If 'like' can be paraphrased by 'want', 'desire', 'intend' or 'go out of one's way', then it is construed exclusively with the to-infinitive, whether the desire is fulfilled, as in A, as in the construction with would/should B."

A: He likes to go home by car.

B: He would like to go home by car.

So in essence what does A mean? He has desire to go home by car and his desire is fulfilled. What does that mean? In what context would someone say this?

Can someone answer my questions please? Thanks.
  

Top answer

like+ing and like to... are usually perfectly interchangeable. only when you talk about a very specific situation, that has existed before would I consider like+ing completely preferable.

  • like+ing and like to...
  • are usually perfectly interchangeable.
  • only when you talk about a very specific situation, that has existed before would I consider like+ing completely preferable.
  • : I moved to London in 1984.
  • I like living here in London.
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2 Answers
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like+ing and like to... are usually perfectly interchangeable.

only when you talk about a very specific situation, that has existed before would I consider like+ing completely preferable.

e.g.: I moved to London in 1984. I like living here in London.

Do you like being a student?

i wouldnt use to+infinitve here.

If you generally talk about what yo
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Thank you for the reply.

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