If you haven’t read through the first two posts about gerunds and infinitives check out the first one here, and the second one here!
Generally speaking, there are some verbs that generally go together (or collocate) with gerunds or infinitives. Here’s a neat little list of verbs that come before a gerund:
anticipate, appreciate, avoid, cease, complete, consider, defend, delay, deny, despise, discuss, dislike, don’t mind, dread, encourage, enjoy, finish, imagine, involve, keep, mention, mind, miss, need, permit, postpone, practice, recall, recollect, recommend, report, require, resent, resist, risk, suggest, tolerate, understand, urge.
For example: I don’t mind watching horror movies, though they’re not my favourite.
Here are a list of verbs that usually go with the infinitive:
agree, appear, arrange, ask, attempt, beg, can/can’t afford, can/can’t wait, care, chance, choose, claim, come, consent, dare, decide, demand, deserve, determine, elect, endeavour, expect, fail, get, grow (up), guarantee, hesitate, hope, hurry, incline, learn, manage, mean, need, neglect, offer, pay, plan, prepare, pretend, profess, promise, prove, refuse, remain, request, resolve, say, seek, seem, shudder, strive, struggle, swear, tend, threaten, turn out, venture, volunteer, wait, want, wish, would like, yearn.
For example: We deserve to have some chocolate after we finish our essay!
Now some tricky ones here are the verbs that can have a gerund or an infinitive after them. Some of these don’t change meaning at all- it’s up to you or what feels right whether you use a gerund or an infinitive.
begin, can’t bear, can’t stand, continue, hate, like, love, prefer, propose, start.
For example: I continued watching/I continued to watch the sky change colour as the sun set.
Check back for the last part in our gerunds and infinitives where we go through the ones that can be either gerunds or infinitives BUT the meaning changes… 😀
Which verbs are new to you in this lesson? Tell me in the comments!
English Class with Heather 