28f. Verbs followed by gerunds or infinitives

28fBecome familiar with verbs that may be followed by gerunds or infinitives.

A gerund is a verb form that ends in -ing and is used as a noun: sleeping, dreaming. An infinitive is the word to plus the base form of the verb: to sleep, to dream. The word to is an infinitive marker, not a preposition, in this use. (See 48b.)

A few verbs may be followed by either a gerund or an infinitive; others may be followed by a gerund but not by an infinitive; still others may be followed by an infinitive but not by a gerund.

Verb + gerund or infinitive (no change in meaning)

The following commonly used verbs may be followed by a gerund or an infinitive, with little or no difference in meaning:

begin hate love
continue like start

I love skiing. I love to ski.

Verb + gerund or infinitive (change in meaning)

With a few verbs, the choice of a gerund or an infinitive changes the meaning dramatically:

forget remember stop try

She stopped speaking to Lucia. [She no longer spoke to Lucia.]

She stopped to speak to Lucia. [She paused so that she could speak to Lucia.]

Verb + gerund

These verbs may be followed by a gerund but not by an infinitive:

admit discuss imagine put off risk
appreciate enjoy miss quit suggest
avoid escape postpone recall tolerate
deny finish practice resist

Bill enjoys playing [not to play] the piano.

Jamie quit smoking.

Verb + infinitive

These verbs may be followed by an infinitive but not by a gerund:

agree decide manage plan wait
ask expect mean pretend want
beg help need promise wish
claim hope offer refuse would like

Jill has offered to water [not watering] the plants while we are away.

Joe finally managed to find a parking space.

A few of these verbs may be followed either by an infinitive directly or by a noun or pronoun plus an infinitive:

ask help promise would like
expect need want

We asked to speak to the congregation.

We asked Rabbi Abrams to speak to our congregation.

Verb + noun or pronoun + infinitive

With certain verbs in the active voice, a noun or pronoun must come between the verb and the infinitive that follows it. The noun or pronoun usually names a person who is affected by the action of the verb.

advise convince order tell
allow encourage persuade urge
cause have (“own”) remind warn
command instruct require
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The counselor advised Haley to take four courses instead of five.

Verb + noun or pronoun + unmarked infinitive

An unmarked infinitive is an infinitive without to. A few verbs (often called causative verbs) may be followed by a noun or pronoun and an unmarked infinitive.

have (“cause”) let (“allow”)
help make (“force”)

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Help can be followed by a noun or pronoun and either an unmarked or a marked infinitive.

Emma helped Brian wash the dishes.

Emma helped Brian to wash the dishes.

note: The infinitive is used in some typical constructions with too and enough.

too + adjective + infinitive

The gift is too large to wrap.

enough + noun + infinitive

Our emergency pack has enough bottled water to last a week.

adjective + enough + infinitive

Some of the hikers felt strong enough to climb another thousand feet.