Choosing Between Infinitive and Gerund: “To do” or “doing”?

My doctor	asked me	to try	to avoid	eating	greasy food
	↓	↓	↓	↓
	main verb	不定式	不定式	gerund

The sentence above illustrates the use of infinitives and gerunds, but do you know why it is grammatically correct to use “to avoid” and not “avoiding”? This handout will help you make the right choice.

Infinitives and gerunds are verb forms (neither of them can be a main verb), which can have several positions and functions in a sentence:

	Infinitive		Gerund
	to+VERB		VERB+-ing
	to do		doing
Functioning as a subject	To speakthree languages is hard. – used in more formal registers		Speakingthree languages is hard. – used in formal and informal registers.
To show purpose or reason	To achievetheir goals, the officials hired a new manager. – used as a reduction ofin order to		–
下面的动词¹	The study intendsto expandthe research on the topic.		He discussedgoingto Washington, DC, with his colleague.
下面的动词with no change in meaning	它开始to rain.		它开始raining.
	+ begin, continue, prefer, propose
下面的动词with a change in meaning	The participant stoppedto smoke. Meaning: The participant stopped in order to smoke.	The participant stoppedsmoking. Meaning: The participant does not smoke any more.
	+ remember, forget, go on, quit, regret, remember, try²
Following prepositions	–		Thank you forlettingme know.

¹Infinitives and gerunds follow certain verbs and phrases, and there is no rule or reason why, for example, a verbattemptis followed by an infinitive (The paper attempts to address), but not a gerund (*The paper attempts addressing). This is simply a matter of memorization.

²Seehttp://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/grammar/gerund_infinitive_difference.htmto explore how these words differ in meaning when followed by an infinitive and gerund

Information above adapted from Folse, K. S. (2009).Keys to teaching grammar to English language learners: A practical handbook. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Strategies

To check whether a certain word is followed by a gerund, infinitive, or any other grammatical constructions:

- check the word in a learner’s dictionary (e.g.http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/)

- use a collocation dictionary (e.g.http://www.ozdic.com/)

- simply type the word in a search engine (e.g. Google) and examine the sentences that contain the word.

Practice

Identify whether an infinitive or gerund should be used in the sentences, underlining the correct forms. Explain your choice.

FromLesson Reflection – Class on Cloud Types

During the conclusion of the main lesson, students were askedto identify/identifyingthe cloud-type depicted in a fourth projection andto explain/explainingwhy they reached their particular conclusion. This would achieve learning goal three byto allow/allowingstudentsto apply/applyingwhat they learned about cloud types as evidence during a formal assessment. Students were allowedto use/usingthe information recorded on their worksheets and resources around the roomto reach/reachinga conclusion. Students one, two, and three reached the conclusion that a cumulus cloud was shown on the projector, which is correct. However, only student one listed a reason for her answer byto write/writingthe word “puffy”. So, despiteto list/listing“堆积”,他们的答案,大多数学生失败了to identify/identifyinga reason for their response. From this evidence, I would conclude that students have learned howto apply/applyingobservationsto formulate/formulatinganswers, but have not learned howto explain/explainingtheir answers throughuse/usingevidence. Such limited explanations could also be due in part to a lack of emphasis on this task and a limited capacity to put thoughts into words.

Practice passage adapted from Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student Papers. (2009). Ann Arbor, MI: The Regents of the University of Michigan.

Last updated 9/1/2017