Verbs followed by infinitive or gerund

Question

Can you think of more verbs (to stop, to remember, to forget,...) for which the constructs verb+infinitive and verb+gerund have different meanings?He stopped to smoke.He stopped smoking.He forgot to go thereHe forgot having gone there.If yes, please provide an example.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

For example, the following verbs are followed by infinitive or gerund:

to begin, to continue, to detest, to hate, to intend, to like, to love, to omit, to prefer, to regret, to start,

cannot afford, cannot bear.

However, the constructs verb+infinitive and verb+gerund with said verbs have the same meaning.

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Anonymousto begin, to continue, to detest, to hate, to intend, to like, to love, to omit, to prefer, to regret, to start,
cannot afford, cannot bear.

Anon,

With these infintive verb shown above, can you please give us a few examples? I am not sure I follow you.

Anonymous · Answer

dimsumexpressAnon,
With these infintive verb shown above, can you please give us a few examples? I am not sure I follow you.

He began to smoke.

He began smoking.

He continued to smoke.

He continued smoking.

She detested to fit in.

She detested fitting in.

He intended to swim.

He intended swimming.

She liked to smoke.

She liked smoking.

He loved to smoke.

He loved smoking.

She omitted to cook.

She omitted cooking.

He preferred to smoke.

He preferred smoking.

She regretted to insist.

She regretted insisting.

They started to smoke.

They started smoking.

She cannot afford to buy it.

She cannot afford buying it.

He cannot bear to hear it.

He cannot bear hearing it.

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Anonymous
dimsumexpressAnon,With these infintive verb shown above, can you please give us a few examples? I am not sure I follow you.
OK, whether a sentence requires gerund or infinitive, a lot of it depends on the context and idiomaticality. Some of the examples are good questions and some don't make sense to me and I won't elaborate on each one.

He began to smoke. I won't say it is wrong, but without extensive context,I'd prefer gerund.
He began smoking (when he was 17). With this context, Yes.

He continued to smoke. Possible.
He continued smoking (in the building despite repeated warning) . Ok with this context

She detested to fit in.
She detested fitting in.

He intended to swim. only this one sound possible
He intended swimming.

She liked to smoke. Both are fine
She liked smoking.

He loved to smoke.
He loved smoking. Both are ok

She omitted to cook. ???
She omitted cooking. ??? No idea what you meant

He preferred to smoke.
He preferred smoking.

She regretted to insist.
She regretted insisting.

They started to smoke. Begin and start basically mean the same thing.
They started smoking.

She cannot afford to buy it. To buy, but I wonld just say "She can't afford it"
She cannot afford buying it.

He cannot bear to hear it.
He cannot bear hearing it. Both aer possible.

So you see, there is no formula to help you pick the correct form. Contexts decide which one is better suited for the syntax. Frequent Reading and listening to natural English will definitely improve your ability to use them more effectively.

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks, dimsumexpress, it is a pleasure to be in touch with such a helpful and kind native speaker as yourself.

My bad, I should have added ellipsis in some sentences instead of full stop.

Let's have one more example with 'omit' in the sense of 'omit to do something'.

So the danger is that by repeated cooking/cooling cycles, you will accidentally omit to cook it for long enough to kill everything properly, then as it cools, you'll allow the bacterial population to increase.

However, the original question was about constructs verb+infinitive and verb+gerund having different meanings.

I am interested in having (if possible) a list of such verbs.

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Hi Anon,

It is nice to see courteous reply once in a while, and you are welcome. Though, I am not a native. I am just some who happened to like the language and has lived in the US more than 2/3 of his life studying it.

AnonymousSo the danger is that by repeated cooking/cooling cycles, you will accidentally omit to cook it for long enough to kill everything properly, then as it cools, you'll allow the bacterial population to increase.

Let me just say something about "omit to cook...". I am not sure if the repeated cooking process actually promote bacteria growth. However, it's good that you have provided a context. Honestly, I don't like the sound of it. "Omit" connotes meaning of leaving out something either purposely or accidentally. I think it's better to use

" fail to cook ".

AnonymousHowever, the original question was about constructs verb+infinitive and verb+gerund having different meanings.
I am interested in having (if possible) a list of such verbs.

I am not aware if there is such a list exists. If it does, I must not be familiar with it. From a personal point of view, the choice depends mostly on contexts and idiomaticality.

Both forms are equally correct to use

Act of learning Process of learning

I like to learn new things I like learning new things.

Where is Mary?

She went to swim with Lisa at the beach. She went swimming with Lisa at the beach.

Roberts likes to have his coffee strong and black .Roberts likes having his coffee strong and black.

But not this:

I enjoy to cook - even though it looks gammatical, it sounds very awkward and border-line "alien".

So the idiomatic form is " I enjoy cooking".

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks, dimsumexpress. You are right that the choice depends on context and idiomacity.

Indeed, 'i enjoy cooking' is a better choice, but the infinitive can be used in interrogative sentences, 'What do you enjoy to cook?'

Meanwhile, I collected some more verbs for which the constructs verb+infinitive and verb+gerund have different meanings.

Verbs followed by an Infinitive or a Gerund with a difference in meaning

begin, dread, forget, need, regret, remember, start, try

Verbs followed by an Infinitive or a Gerund with little difference in meaning

can't bear, can't stand, cease, continue, hate, like, love, neglect, prefer, propose

Dimsumexpress · Answer

'What do you enjoy to cook?' No, no native would ever say that. Oh before I forget, I need to correct myself in my earlier post for the wrong spelling of a word "idiomaticity". Thanks for catching that.

My understanding is if the verb can take either gerund of infinitive, the core meaning is relatively unchanged.

"Enjoy" and "regret" are amount a group of verbs - are always followed by gerund. I can't remember ever seeing infintive. i.e. I enjoy hiking, dancing and singing etc.

On the other hand, "like", "continue", hate" and "love" are amount the group of verbs which can take on either one, i.e. I like to help / helping people with English questions.

Infintive = the act of helping. Gerund = the process of helping people.

dimsumexpress. You are right that the choice depends on context and idiomacity.
Meanwhile, I collected some more verbs for which the constructs verb+infinitive and verb+gerund have different meanings.

Verbs followed by an Infinitive or a Gerund with a difference in meaning
begin, dread, forget, need, regret, remember, start, try

Verbs followed by an Infinitive or a Gerund with little difference in meaning
can't bear, can't stand, cease, continue, hate, like, love, neglect, prefer, propose

I can't generalize the use of verbs on your list until I see how they are used in the contexts.

If you care to put them in sentences, we can talk about it.

Verbs followed by infinitive or gerund

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions