Gerunds vs Infinitives After Verbs

Should you say "I enjoy swimming" or "I enjoy to swim"? This is one of the sneakiest little choices in English, because both forms sound like they ought to work, and there's no rule you can hear in the words themselves. Some verbs insist on an -ing word (a gerund), some insist on a to-infinitive, and a few happily take either. The reason students guess is that nobody ever tells them the secret: it's the first verb that decides. Learn which verbs want which, and the wobble goes away.

Two forms after a verb

• Gerund = the -ing form used as a noun: swimming, reading, playing.
• To-infinitive = to + verb: to swim, to read, to play.

The verb that comes first sets the rule for whatever follows it. So the job isn't to work out which form "sounds right" on its own — it's to know what the verb in front is asking for.

Verbs followed by -ing (gerund)

enjoy, finish, avoid, keep, mind, practise, suggest, imagine:

I enjoy swimming. · She finished eating. · Do you mind waiting?

Verbs followed by to-infinitive

want, hope, need, decide, promise, learn, agree, offer:

I want to go. · He decided to leave. · We hope to win.

A clue that often helps

There's a rough pattern hiding in those two lists. The to-infinitive verbs tend to look forward to something not done yet — you want, hope, plan and decide to do a thing before it happens. The gerund verbs tend to treat the action as an activity in itself — you enjoy, finish or avoid the doing of it. It won't crack every case, but it's a genuinely useful nudge when your memory fails: ask whether you're reaching towards a goal (lean towards to) or describing an activity (lean towards -ing).

Verbs that put a person in the middle

There's one more everyday pattern worth having, because it turns up constantly. Some verbs take a to-infinitive, but only after you slot a person in between: ask, tell, want, expect, remind, encourage, allow. So it's I asked her to wait, They told us to leave, He reminded me to bring it. You're not choosing between -ing and to here — the to-infinitive is fixed — but you do have to remember the person goes first. This is why "He told to sit down" sounds broken: tell needs to know who was told. Watch out for one sneaky verb, though — suggest refuses this pattern. You can't say "He suggested me to go"; it has to be "He suggested going" or "He suggested that I go." So most of these person-in-the-middle verbs take to, but suggest stays loyal to the gerund. When in doubt about a single verb, a good dictionary will tell you whether it wants -ing, to, or a person plus to — far safer than guessing and hoping.

After prepositions — always -ing

Any verb that comes straight after a preposition (at, of, in, about, without, before, after) takes -ing:

good at drawing · tired of waiting · look forward to seeing you

That last one is a famous trap. In look forward to, the to is a preposition, not part of an infinitive — so a gerund follows. It's I look forward to seeing you, never to see you. Loads of people get this wrong, so it's a great one to get right.

Watch out — some verbs take both

A few verbs (like, love, start, begin, hate) work with either form, with barely any change in meaning: I like swimming / I like to swim — both fine. But a couple of verbs change meaning depending on which you pick, and these matter:

• I stopped smoking. → I gave it up.
• I stopped to smoke. → I paused what I was doing in order to have a cigarette.

Another pair like this is remember: I remember locking the door (a memory of doing it) versus Remember to lock the door (a task not to forget). Here the form isn't just style — it flips the whole meaning, so it's worth reading twice.

More worked examples

• ✓ She avoided answering the question. (after avoid → -ing)
• ✓ They agreed to help us. (after agree → to)
• ✗ He suggested to meet at noon. → ✓ He suggested meeting at noon. *(*suggest → -ing)
• ✓ I'm interested in learning Spanish. (after a preposition → -ing)
• ✗ We look forward to hear from you. → ✓ We look forward to hearing from you. (prepositional to → -ing)

Why it matters

This choice shows up in almost every longer sentence, so getting it right keeps your writing sounding natural instead of slightly "off". The preposition rule alone — always -ing after words like at, of and look forward to — will fix a huge share of the mistakes people make, including in polite letters and emails. And the meaning-changing pairs like stop and remember are worth knowing because there the wrong form doesn't just sound odd, it says something you didn't mean. Master these patterns and you'll write with the kind of quiet accuracy that readers trust. And because there's no shortcut that covers every verb, the smartest habit is to build your own short list from the words you actually use, checking a dictionary whenever a new verb makes you hesitate. The lists you build yourself are the ones that stick, and after a while the right form simply arrives without any effort at all.

Quick check

-ing or to?

1. I enjoy ___ (read).

2. She wants ___ (win).

3. He's good at ___ (cook).

4. They decided ___ (stay) home.

5. Do you mind ___ (wait) a moment?

6. We look forward to ___ (meet) you.

Where next

• Infinitives: To Go or Just Go? — the to-infinitive.
• Present Participles (-ing forms) — the -ing form.
• Dependent Prepositions — the -ing after prepositions.