Gerund & Infinitive
The Gerund Uses 1. Subject of a verb: Smoking is bad for you. 2. Object of verb: Do you like smoking? 3.The complement of to be: His favorite activity is watching television. 4. After prepositions: She is very good at listening to people. 5. After determiners (a, the, this, some, a lot of): 6. The bombing of civilians horrified everyone. 7. After the possessive adjectives, object pronouns or noun: I hope you don’t mind his/him/John coming here.
8. After adjectives: Regular swimming is very good for you. 9 8. After adjectives: Regular swimming is very good for you. 9. In certain expression: It’s no use trying to help her. Is this for peeling vegetables. How about going out for a meal tonight? There are some jobs I hate, like washing, and ironing the clothes. No smoking.
The infinitive uses 1. After certain verbs: they agreed to come 2. After certain verbs + person (objects) 3. I asked her to come here. 4. After to be: My first thought was to phone you. 5. To express purpose: I came here to tell you the good news. 6. After be + adjective (+ of+ noun/pronoun) -It was nice to see you. -It’s kind of you to help me. -She is very keen to do the course.
7. After the first/ second/ last/ only/ best (and other superlative adjectives)+ noun or pronoun ‘one’ -He was the only one to die 8. After noun/ pronoun. The verb in the infinitive relates to the preceding noun/ pronoun -There’s a lot of work to do -I’ve got a few people to see 9. After verbs of knowing and believing : Verb + object + infinitive Or verb in the passive+ infinitive -I know him to be an honest man. -He is known to be an honest man -We consider it to be our duty. -It is considered to be our duty.
10. After verb + question word: I don’t know what to do. 11. After too + adjective and after adjective + enough He is too l to come The garden isn’t big enough to play games in. 12. After is/are to describe a future event: He is to become Mayor next month.
The bare infinitive uses After modals and after the auxiliaries do/did You must come They may arrive Did you pass the exam? 2. After Let’s ……. Let’s go out tonight 3. After make + noun/ pronoun object I’d rather walk there than the bus. I’d rather not stay out late tonight.
4. After had better: -We’d better go home now. 5. After WHY not……? Why not phone me tomorrow? 6. After a verb of perceptions (see, watch, feel, hear ) + object: I didn’t hear you come in. 7. When there is a series of infinitives after a verb: I’d like to come and see you.