Gerunds vs Infinitives

This question is one that you'll learn gradually as you build your English skills over time. There are a few rules that you can learn to help you remember these more quickly.

Unfortunately, there are quite a lot of these and learners often struggle to remember.

However, you'll notice that many verbs with related meanings can be grouped together. As you continue to learn new verbs, take note of whether they are followed by a gerund or infinitive and try to add them to one of the groups below (or create a new group).

Take your time to get familiar with them and look out for them in your reading and listening. Try your best to use them correctly in your own speaking and writing.

Eventually, only one form will feel right.

There are a number of verbs where you can probably use either the gerund or infinitive without much difference in meaning - for example: begin, continue, start, like, don't like, prefer

- John started working for Microsoft five years ago
- John started to work for Microsoft five years ago.

- Mary likes working on challenging projects
- Mary likes to work on challenging projects

Now, you'll notice that 'like' and 'don't like' appear in our Verb + Gerund list above. Verbs like these are usually presented in the Gerund lists in grammar books because it is more common to hear them used with gerunds than infinitives.

The verbs stop, remember/forget and try have different meanings when you use a gerund or an infinitive with them.

Luckily, there are some common rules you can try and remember to help you decide:

STOP, REMEMBER/FORGET

RULE 1: verb + gerund
- The gerund action happens first
- The verb action happens second

RULE 2: verb + infinitive
- The verb action happens first
- The infinitive action happens second

• stop + gerund
  - After ten years, Fred finally stopped smoking.
  (action 1 - Fred smoked, action 2 - Fred stopped)
• stop + infinitive
  - As she was walking to work, Eve stopped to tie up her shoelaces.
  (action 1 - Eve stopped, action 2 - Eve tied up)
  

• remember/forget + gerund
  - Stacy remembered meeting Joe a few weeks ago.
  (action 1 - Stacy met Joe, action 2 - Stacy remembered)
• remember/forget + infinitive
  - Stephen forgot to bring his computer to work. He left it at home again!
  (action 1 - Stephen forgot, action 2 - Stephen didn't bring)
  

TRY

RULE 1: verb + gerund
- The gerund action represents a solution to a problem

RULE 2: verb + infinitive
- The infinitive action represents an attempt

• try + gerund
  - They couldn't fix the printer themselves, so they tried calling an engineer.
  (solution - calling an engineer)
• try + infinitive
  - They tried to fix the printer themselves, but failed.
  (attempt - to fix)