She Will Never Try Analysis Again

As students get more skilful in English, they inevitably begin focusing on some of the trickier aspects of the language. One of those is gerunds and infinitives. Their utilize is completely natural for native speakers, but require a bit of breaking down in class. Hither are some pointers to over with your students.

Office Ane: A quick recap

ane. What's a gerund?

A gerund is the noun form of a verb that ends in -ing. For case, playing, dancing, eating. Right abroad this is disruptive for students, equally they are used to seeing that form equally the continuous/progressive form of the verb ("she is eating", "they were dancing"). However, a gerund is a noun, and is the discipline or object of the judgement. Examples are "Cooking is my favorite hobby" (bailiwick), or "I hate studying" (object).

2. What's an infinitive?

An infinitive is to + verb base form. For instance, to play, to dance, to eat. Some people telephone call the whole infinitive the base of operations form, but I think it's easier for students to think of infinitives every bit the two parts that they are, to + base form, and stress that they need both of these parts to form the complete infinitive. This is different from Latin-based languages, where the infinitive is just one word. Like gerunds, infinitives can also be the subject or object of a sentence.

All verbs (except for modals) have both a gerund and an infinitive class; the trick is deciding which form nosotros need. Here, I'1000 focusing more on gerunds and infinitives every bit objects rather than subjects, though I will briefly say that, by and large speaking, subjects take the gerund class. When we use the infinitive every bit a subject, it usually sounds very formal or very emphatic, e.g. "To dance is to live" or "To complete your thesis is your number ane priority." However, this is much less common than merely using the gerund as the subject area ("Completing your thesis should exist your focus right now.")

3. How to use gerunds as objects

Here's some other fun rule that has no exceptions (well, information technology except for modal verbs, but modal verbs are their own special exception!).

Whenever at that place are two verbs together, ane right afterwards the other, the second verb must exist in either the gerund grade or the infinitive form. This is something that A2, B1, and sometimes even higher level students have a difficult time with, especially those who speak Latin languages.

What I hateful is, we tin never say "She wanted go" or "They like run." The second verb has to change, and the offset verb dictates what form the second verb volition be. To make these sentences correct, we accept to say "She wanted to go" or "They like running" or "They similar to run." But why? And why can't we say, "She wanted going"?

The simplest answer is, because at that place are certain rules we have to follow. So let's have a wait at some of the clear-cut rules when information technology comes to gerunds and infinitives.

Part Two: Cardinal rules*

*For all of these rules, if students ask y'all why, unfortunately, the answer is but that these are the rules—there'south no reason, this is just how the grammar is, whether we like it or not!

Dominion #1: Some verbs must exist followed by gerunds

I always starting time with the verb enjoy, considering it's mayhap one they are most familiar with. We must say "He enjoys drinking coffee"; we can never say "He enjoys to beverage coffee."

Other verbs in this category include:

• Discuss
• Conceptualize
• Despise
• Consider
• Deny

Rule #2: Some verbs must be followed by infinitives

I like to get-go with want and need because they may exist the most common. "She needed to sell her house"—nosotros cannot say "She needed selling her house." Some other example, "You wanted to alter your class"; "You wanted changing your class" is wrong.

Other verbs in this category include:

• Agree
• Ask
• Decide
• Expect
• Program

Rule #3: Some verbs can exist followed by both gerunds and infinitives with no change in meaning

Students may already exist familiar with these iii: Like, Love, Detest. This is the easiest category, considering it really doesn't matter, the pregnant is exactly equal betwixt "I detest cleaning" and "I hate to make clean."

Other verbs in this category include:

• Adopt
• Continue
• Begin

Rule #iv: Some verbs tin can be followed past both gerunds and infinitives simply the meaning changes

This is the trickiest rule, and likely the one that will require the about explaining besides as the well-nigh practice. I find that lots of examples are helpful, and encourage the students to create their own examples besides. The plus side, though, is that there are very few words on this list, and we'll only wait at the primary five.

Verb	Example sentence with a gerund	Meaning	Example sentence with an infinitive	Significant
End	He stopped smoking.	He smoked for a fourth dimension but then he quit.	He stopped to smoke.	He took a pause from something else he was doing to have a cigarette (e.g. He stopped walking in order to smoke).
Try	Nosotros tried opening the door, only it nevertheless wouldn't budge.	We probably tried other options also, this is just one of the options.	We tried to open the door, but nosotros couldn't.	The only thing we tried was to open up the door, we tried with intention.
Forget	She forgot locking the door.	She did lock the door, but then she forgot she had done it.	She forgot to lock the door.	She did non lock the door because she forgot.
Remember	She remembers calling her friend.	She called her friend and she remembers that she did.	She remembered to call her friend.	She had a list of things to practice, calling her friend was one of them, and she did information technology.
Regret	They regret letting him go.	They let him go (fired him), only so after they felt bad and wished they hadn't.	They regret to allow him become.	They oasis't let him get yet, just they volition, even though they feel about it.

Some students may observe a design at this signal. One way to think about when to apply the gerund and when to use the infinitive with these words is that the action of the gerund, the 2nd verb, is the start activity, and the beginning verb is the 2nd action. For example, beginning he smoked, but so second he stopped. With infinitives it'southward the opposite: the start verb is the starting time action and and then infinitive is the 2d action. First, he stopped whatever he was doing (walking, for instance), and second he smoked.

My advice is to focus on the verbs that take clear rules, the ones discussed here. Later students feel comfy with those, they can offset practicing with the rest of the verbs, and unfortunately, those simply require memorization/do. Y'all tin can find complete lists online, merely I don't encourage students to memorize the rule for 200+ verbs because information technology's largely a waste of time; I recommend they learn these, and later on that, try to pay attention when they're listening to native speakers or watching movies to be aware.

I more point I'd like to mention, and then we tin can exist washed with gerunds and infinitives–let's look at my favorite rule to tell students—it's my favorite because there are no exceptions:

*Bonus Rule*

-Prepositions must e'er exist followed by a noun

-Gerunds are nouns

-Therefore, if we desire a verb to follow a preposition, we must change information technology to its gerund form

For instance, I must say, "I am interested in teaching." I cannot say "I am interested in to teach" or "I am interested in teach."

Afterward you've gone over all these fun rules and examples with students, it's actually just all about do: a combination of controlled practice and product exercises are best. Also, depending on what level yous're educational activity, you could also use an anterior reasoning approach, where you give students various example sentences, and and so they have to figure out the rules.

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Source: https://www.ef.com/wwen/blog/teacherzone/grammar-recap-intro-to-gerunds-and-infinitives/

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