Download The full infinitive consist of two words, to + verb

The gerund
1.
1.1.
TM 228-238, 239-244; A 312-321, 30-33
Form and use
The gerund (rzeczownik odczasownikowy) has the same form as the present participle (imiesłów
czasu teraźniejszego): running, speaking
Q: In John likes flying planes ‘flying’ is a gerund or present participle? 1
1.2.
It can be used
1.2.1. as a subject of a sentence: Dancing bored him.
1.2.2. In prohibitions
1.2.3. as a complement of a verb be: Her hobby is painting.
1.2.4. after prepositions: He was accused of smuggling
1.2.5. after verbs like advise, cease, forget, try, used to...
1.2.6. in nouns compounds: a diving board (= a board for diving)
Q: Which word is stressed in the following phrases: walking stick, walking people. Which word
narrows the meaning of which one? 2
2.
The gerund as subject
2.1. To read French is easier than to speak it. = Reading French is easier than speaking it.
2.2. As in infinitive, after find, believe, consider, discover, expect, find, think, wonder etc. we can
sometimes omit that and be: He found that it was easy to park here. / He found it easy to park here. ≈
He found that parking here was easy. / He found parking here easy.
Q: Is there a difference in meaning between gerund and infinitive in the above sentences?3
3.
The gerund is used in short prohibitions
Q: Which one is correct? 4
4.
Preposition + gerund
when a verb is placed immediately after a preposition the gerund form must be used:
What can you do besides typing?
Touch your toes without bending your knees!
This is a tool for opening tins.(≈ to open tins)
She disapproves of jogging.
The skill of speaking a foreign language takes time to acquire.
In spite of starting late he arrived in time.
There’s no point in waiting.
4.2. Some PhVs take the gerund: be for/against, care for, give up, keep on, leave off (przestać robić coś),
look forward to, put off, see about (załatwiać), take to (zacząć robić coś).
I don’t care for standing in queues.
Eventually the dogs left off barking.
4.3. The word to as a preposition may be followed by noun/pronoun or gerund: be accustomed to, be
used to, object to, be reduced to, resign oneself to, etc.
I am looking forward to
spending my holidays.
I object to (people/them) being exploited at work.
I am used to standing in queues.
4.1.
Both. Gerund in the sense “to fly planes”, participle in the sense “planes that fly”. Gerunds behave like nouns but may take
objects and can be followed by adverbs. Participles behave like adjectives, e.g. a wide running (adj) water vs running
(=gerund) shoes .
2
WALKing stick, walking PEOPLE. Walking narrows the meaning of stick. In most compounds NOUN/GERUND +
NOUN/GERUND, the first syllable is stressed. WAITing room, WEIGH-lifting, HEAVYweight. Notice exceptions evening
STAR (Venus) vs EVEning school; flying SAUCer vs FLYing camp.
3
Infinitive = on one particular occasion; second gerund example = always easy; first gerund example = ?
4
First one. Gerund + object cannot be used in signs with prohibitions, inf is used instead.
1
Q: Which is correct: 5
a.
I object to his presence.
b.
I object to the fact that he’s there.
c.
I object to his being there.
d.
I object to him being there.
5.
Verb + gerund
5.1. the most important include”
admit, dread, mean (=involve), resist, anticipate, enjoy, mind (=object), risk, appreciate, escape,
miss, save (sb the trouble of), avoid, excuse, pardon, stop (=cease), consider, fancy (=imagine),
postpone, mean, suggest, propose, finish, practice, understand, defer, forgive, prevent, delay,
imagine, propose (=suggest), deny, involve, recollect, detest, keep (=continue), remember
(=recollect), dislike, loathe, resent, prefer
6.
6.1.
6.2.
6.3.
6.4.
6.5.
7.
8.
8.1.
Q: Which ones can take that? Which can take the infinitive? 6
Examples:
He admitted taking the money.
Would you consider selling the property?
He detests writing letters.
He narrowly escaped being run over.
I can’t understand him leaving his wife.
I couldn’t help laughing.
Verbs + possessive adjective/pronoun object + gerund
if the verb or verb + preposition is followed directly by the gerund, the gerund refers to the subject of
the verb:
Tom insisted on reading the letter. (Tom read it.)
But if we put a possessive adjective or pronoun before the gerund, the gerund refers to the person
denoted by the possessive adjective/pronoun:
He insisted on my/me reading it. (I had to read it.)
useful verbs and expressions which can take either constructions are:
dislike propose understand
dread recollect approve/disapprove of
fancy remember insist on
involve resent it’s no good/use
like (negative) save object to
mean stop there’s no point in
mind suggest what’s the point of
He disliked working late.
He disliked me/my working late.
I object to paying twice for the same thing.
I object to his/him marking private calls on this phone.
He resented being passed over for promotion.
He resented my/me being promoted before him.
excuse, forgive, pardon and prevent take either possessive adjective/pronoun + gerund or pronoun +
preposition + gerund:
Forgive my/me ringing you up so early.
Forgive me for ringing you up so early.
Appreciate usually requires a possessive adjective or passive gerund:
I appreciate your giving me so much of your time.
I appreciate being given this opportunity.
Common expressions + gerund: can’t stand, can’t help, it's worthwhile, it's little use, etc.
There's no telling what will happen.
It's no use/good his/him apologizing now the damage has been done.
This clock is hardly worth repairing.
Noun + gerund
In very formal English the possessive case is used:
All of them. As for c and d... on one hand “being” is a gerund, so it should be preceded by a possessive pronoun. But it’s
hard to possess the “state of being”. Both stylistically speaking are ‘slovenly’ (The Chicago Manual of Style 2008: 193).
6
THAT: admit, anticipate, consider, deny, fancy, imagine, mean, prefer, propose, recollect, remember, suggest; TO: dread,
love, prefer, propose, suggest
5
I do not remember my mother’s complaining about it.
But it is much more usual to omit the ‘s:
I don’t remember my mother complaining.
9.
The verb mind
9.1. it is used mainly in the interrogative and negative:
Would you mind waiting a moment? I don’t mind walking.
9.2. it can be followed directly by a gerund or by a noun/pronoun or possessive adjective + gerund:
I don’t mind living here. (I live here and don’t object to it.)
I don’t mind his/him living here. (He lives here and I don’t object to it.)
He didn’t mind leaving home. (He left home quite happily.)
He didn’t mind Ann leaving home. (Ann left home and he was quite happy about it.)
9.3. would you mind? is one of the most usual ways of making a request:
Would you mind not smoking? (Please don’t smoke.)
Would you mind moving your car? (Please move it.)
10.
The perfect gerund (having worked, having spoken etc.)
10.1. This can be used instead of the present form of the gerund (working, speaking etc.) when we are
referring to a past action:
He was accused of deserting his ship. or
He was accused of having deserted his ship.
11.
The passive gerund
11.1. Present: being written
Perfect: having been written
He was punished by being sent to bed without any supper.
I remember being taken to Paris as a small child.
The safe showed no signs of having been touched.
11.2. Inventive and gerund construction. Verbs which may take either infinitive or gerund: advise, allow,
begin, can/could bear, cease, continue, intend, need, permit, recommend, require, start, want.
11.2.1. with begin, start, continue, cease either infinitive or gerund may be used without any difference
in meaning, but the infinitive is more usual with verbs of knowing and understanding and the verb
matter:
I began working. / I began to work.
He continued living / to live above the shop.
 But:
I am beginning to understand, see, realize why he acted as he did.
It ceased to matter whether or not he sold his work.
She never ceased {complaining / to complain} about prices.
11.2.2. after can/could bear (either gerund or infinitive can be used):
I can’t bear {to wait / waiting}.
 But:
I couldn’t bear to tell him (so I didn’t) = when the infinitive refers to a deliberate action the
expression implies that the subject’s feelings prevented him from performing the action.
11.2.3. after intend (infinitive is more usual that gerund)
I intend to sell/intend selling it.
 But:
I intend him to take over the department. (formal English)
11.2.4. with advise, allow, permit, recommend:
He advised me to apply at once.
She recommends housewives to buy the big tins
 But (if this person is not mentioned, the gerund is used):
He advised applying at once.
She recommends buying the big tins.
11.2.5. The gerund after allow and permit cannot have an object!
They allowed their tenants to use the garage.
11.2.6. it needs, requires, wants can be followed either by the gerund or by the passive infinitive
The grass wants cutting or the grass needs to be cut. (gerund is more usual)
2. forget, regret, remember
8.2.
8.3.
a) regret remember forget are used with a gerund when the action expressed by the gerund is the earlier
action:
I regret spending so much money=I am sorry I spent so much money (spending is the first action regret is the
second )
I remember reading about earthquake in the papers.
remember can be followed by possessive adjective/object+gerund:
I remember his/him telling me about it.
I remember my father(‘s) telling me about it.
forget +gerund is possible only when forget is in the negative:
I’ll never forget waiting for bombs to fall=I’ll always remember waiting for bombs to fall.
b) when regret remember forget themselves express the earlier action they are followed by an infinitive:
I regret to say that you have failed your exam.
I’ll remember to ring Bill
b) regret remember forget + noun/pronoun or that-clause.
c) remember and forget + noun clauses beginning how why when who etc.
I can’t remember when I saw him last.
I’ve forgotten where I put it.
3. agree/agree to, mean, propose.
a) agree to (it is opposite of refuse+ infinitive)
When I asked them to wait , Tom agreed to wait a week but Bill refused to wait another day.
b) agree to (preposition) can be followed by possessive adjective + gerund:
He agreed to my leaving early on Friday ( I asked if I could leave early on Friday and he said that I could. The
opposite here would be: He wouldn’t agree to my leaving early)
c) agree to can be followed by noun /pronoun object:
He agreed to the change of plan /to this/to that.
d) mean (meaning ‘intend’) takes the infinitive:
I mean to get to the top by sunrise.
e) mean (meaning “involve’) takes the gerund:
He is determined to get a seat even if it means standing in a queue all night.
f) propose (meaning ‘intend”) takes the infinitive:
I propose to start tomorrow.
g) propose ( meaning “suggest” ) takes the gerund:
I propose waiting till the police get here.
4. go on, stop, try, used (to)
a) go on ( meaning “continue” ) is followed by a gerund:
He went on talking about his accident (which implies that he had been talking about it before)
b) go on ( when the speaker continues talking about the same topic but introduces a new aspect of it) is used
with an infinitive:
He went on to talk about his accident (which implies that that he had been speaking perhaps about himself or
his journey but that the accident was being introduced for first time)
c) stop (meaning “cease”) is followed by the gerund:
Stop talking.
d) stop can be followed by object+gerund:
I can’t stop him talking to the press.
e) stop (meaning “halt”) can be followed by an infinitive:
I stopped to ask the way ( I stopped in order to ask the way)
f) try ((meaning “attempt” ) is followed by the infinitive:
They tried to put wire netting all round the garden. (they attempted to do this)
g) try (meaning “make the experiment”) is followed by the gerund:
They tried putting wire netting all round the garden.
h) subject+used+infinitive expresses a past habit or routine:
I used to swim all the year round.
i) subject+be/become/get+used+to (preposition) is followed by noun or pronoun or gerund and means
“be/become/get accustomed to:
I am used to heat/to living in a hot climate (I have lived in a hot climate for some time so I don’t mind it)
5. be afraid (of), be sorry (for), be ashamed (of)
a) be afraid of + gerund (it expresses an action which the subject fears may happen)
He never swam far out. He was afraid of getting cramp.
She avoids lonely streets. \She is afraid of being mugged
b) be afraid +infinitive (it means that the subject is/was too frightened to perform the action)
He was afraid to jump (so he didn’t)
She was afraid to protest (so she kept quiet)
c) be afraid +that –clause (this can express a fear)
I am afraid (that) he will blame me for this
d) be sorry for +gerund means “apologize/regret”
I am sorry for making such a noise last night.
I am sorry for disturbing you
e) be sorry+infinitive can express regret or sadness:
I am sorry to hear that you’ve been ill.
I am sorry to inform you that there has been an accident.
f) be sorry that is also possible:
I am sorry that… (express genuine regret)
I am sorry to say that… (regret may be very faint)
g) be ashamed of +gerund or be ashamed of yourself etc. for+gerund (it refers to a previous action):
You should be ashamed of lying to him
Or
You should be ashamed of yourself for lying to him.
h) be ashamed +infinitive (it refers to a subsequent action):
I am ashamed to tell you what this carpet cost.
i) would be ashamed+ infinitive (implies that the subject’s feelings prevent him from performing the action):
I’d be ashamed to ask for help. (so I won’t/wouldn’t ask)