Gerunds vs Infinitives After Verbs

It's 9:40 on a Tuesday. You've drafted a polite email to a client — I look forward to meet you — and something feels off, but you can't quite name it. You hover over the sentence, backspace, retype it, then give up and hope for the best. Or you're tidying a CV line — Responsible for manage a small team — and it just refuses to sit right.

Let's be honest — English verb patterns are one of those things a lot of fluent, capable adults still quietly guess at. Is it enjoy to learn or enjoy learning? Decided going or decided to go? Why good at doing but want to do? The bum-note feeling is almost always about the same thing: which fully formed verb is standing in front, and what form it expects next.

The good news is — there are clear patterns, and once you see them you'll spend far less time staring at a blinking cursor. This article assumes you already know what gerunds and infinitives are (if not, F1 and F3 in this library have you covered) — here we're only interested in the choice after another verb, plus the preposition habit that trips up more adult emails than almost anything else.

Before you read on, here's where we're heading. By the end of this article, you'll be able to: - Use the right pattern after common verbs — verb + gerund vs verb + to-infinitive. - Handle verbs that take either, and know when the meaning changes (remember, try, stop, regret). - Deploy the preposition + gerund pattern cleanly (interested in meeting, responsible for managing). - Edit your own writing for the slips that make otherwise-good prose read slightly "off."

Beginner (Foundation)

Start with the broad split. After some verbs we use verb + -ing; after others we use to + verb. Think of the first verb as setting the house rules for whatever follows — and your job at this level is simply to learn the most common rules and stop re-deciding every sentence.

Verbs that take a gerund

• I enjoy reading crime novels.
• She finished writing the report.
• They avoided answering the question.
• Would you mind waiting five minutes?

Common gerund-takers to keep close: enjoy, finish, avoid, mind, keep, suggest, recommend, consider. So it's ✔ I enjoy working from home, never ✘ I enjoy to work from home.

Verbs that take a to-infinitive

• I want to leave by five.
• We decided to postpone the meeting.
• She hopes to get the promotion.
• They agreed to help us.

Common infinitive-takers: want, hope, plan, decide, need, agree, offer, refuse, promise, manage. So it's ✔ We need to finish this today, never ✘ We need finishing this today.

There's a useful shortcut in there. The infinitive-takers tend to point forward — want, plan, hope, decide all reach towards something not yet done. The gerund-takers tend to treat the action as an activity in itself — enjoy, finish, avoid, the doing rather than the aim. It won't explain every case, but it covers a lot of ground.

One more foundation pattern. Plenty of everyday work verbs slot a person in the middle and then take a to-infinitive — ask, tell, expect, remind, encourage:

• Please ask finance to approve the payment.
• They expect us to deliver by mid-month.
• I reminded him to copy Legal.

That's still an infinitive after the person — you're not inventing a third species.

Common Mistake: ✘ I look forward to meet you. — After look forward to, that to is a preposition, not part of an infinitive, so a gerund follows: ✔ I look forward to meeting you. It's the single most common slip in professional email — worth burning into memory.

Quick recap: - Gerund after: enjoy, finish, avoid, mind, keep, suggest, recommend, consider. - Infinitive after: want, hope, plan, decide, need, agree, offer, promise, manage. - Person + to + infinitive after ask, tell, expect, remind, encourage. - Infinitive-takers feel goal-oriented; gerund-takers describe the activity. - Build a personal ten-verb list from your own emails — the lists you build yourself stick harder.

Intermediate (Development)

With the two camps on the table, the intermediate work is grouping them, spotting the meaning changes, and nailing the preposition rule that saves more emails than almost anything else.

Verbs that take both (with little difference)

Some verbs are relaxed — either form, little change in meaning, especially for likes and dislikes: like, love, hate, prefer.

• I like going to the gym before work. / I like to go to the gym before work.

In everyday conversation the -ing form is more common for general habits — She loves cooking, He hates driving in heavy traffic. But with would like / would love / would prefer, we normally use the infinitive:

• I'd like to speak to the manager, please.
• I'd prefer to work from home on Fridays.

Start, begin and continue also take either with no real drama — It started raining / It started to rain.

Pro-Tip: For general likes and dislikes, -ing feels most natural (I love reading). After would like / would love / would prefer, reach for to + verb (I'd love to see you there, I'd like to apply). Sort those two out and half the like/love wobble disappears.

The verbs where the form changes the meaning

These are the real troublemakers — both patterns are correct, but the meaning shifts. The four you'll meet most in working life are remember/forget, stop, try and regret.

remember / forget — gerund = a memory; to-infinitive = a task you mustn't forget.

• I remember meeting her at that conference. (memory of a past event)
• Remember to send the invoice tomorrow. (don't forget this future task)
• I'll never forget meeting her vs Don't forget to brief her.

stop — gerund = quit; to-infinitive = pause one thing to do another.

• We stopped ordering from that supplier. (the ordering ended)
• We stopped to order coffee on the way. (we paused the journey to do it)

try — gerund = experiment with a method; to-infinitive = make an effort, possibly a hard one.

• Try clearing the cache. (one thing to test)
• I tried to clear the cache, but the button was greyed out. (I made the effort and couldn't)

regret — gerund = sorry about a past action; to-infinitive = a formal softener before bad news.

• I regret telling him what I really thought. (I told him, and now I'm sorry)
• We regret to inform you that your application has not been successful. (very formal — you'll only ever write this in an official letter)

Common Mistake: ✘ I remember to see you at the party last year. — You mean a memory, so use the gerund: ✔ I remember seeing you at the party last year. Keep remember to for the future task you can't afford to forget.

After a preposition, use a gerund

Here's the email-saver. After a preposition — by, without, before, after, about, of, in, at, for — and after adjective or noun chunks like interested in, responsible for, good at, capable of, committed to — English wants the gerund:

• Thank you for coming at such short notice.
• She's responsible for managing the team.
• We're interested in working with you.
• Before signing, please read the terms carefully.
• He's good at solving complex problems.

And the classic trap again — look forward to. The to is a preposition, so ✔ We look forward to hearing from you, never ✘ We look forward to hear from you. The same family catches people out with committed to, object to, and be used to — all prepositional to, all followed by a gerund. (The full used to vs be used to contrast is a whole article on its own — see B9 — but just know the gerund follows.)

Phrasal verbs that take a follow-on form — give up, put off, keep on, carry on — almost always want a gerund too: put off filing, give up smoking, ended up restarting the whole thing. For the phrasal verbs themselves, lean on the Pillar 2 material; here we only pin the form that comes next.

Pro-Tip: Before you send a client email, scan every to in it. Is it the free infinitive marker (hope to agree) — or a preposition glued to a chunk (committed to agreeing, looking forward to agreeing)? That one pause prevents the classic "native but not quite right" look.

Quick recap: - like/love/hate/prefer and start/begin/continue often take both; use to + verb after would like/love/prefer. - With remember, forget, stop, try, regret, the form sets the meaning — check timeline and intent. - stop + -ing = quit; stop + to = pause one thing to do another. - After a preposition — including look forward to, committed to, responsible for — use a gerund. - Phrasal verb + follow-on form usually wants a gerund; the phrasals themselves live in Pillar 2.

Advanced (Mastery)

Mastery here isn't hunting rarities — it's control. Knowing which lever is pure style, which is meaning, and which is fixed idiom, so you stop hesitating mid-sentence in a document that matters.

Verb + object + to-infinitive

Many verbs — especially the workhorses of professional writing — take an object and then a to-infinitive:

verb + object + to + verb

want, expect, ask, tell, advise, encourage, allow, invite, remind, persuade, enable.

• We want you to attend the training.
• The manager asked me to send the figures.
• The software allows users to export data.
• Please remind me to call the client.

The object (you, me, users) is the one doing the action of the infinitive — and you can't rebuild it with a gerund. ✔ I enjoy working with you, but ✘ I enjoy you to work with me is simply the wrong structure.

The firm gerund-only and infinitive-only lists

Beyond the basics, these are the ones that read as wrong to a careful ear even when the meaning's clear.

Firmly gerund-only: admit (he admitted making a mistake), deny (she denied taking the money), suggest (I suggest waiting until next week), consider (we're considering moving offices), risk (you risk losing your job), avoid (try to avoid using jargon), can't help (I can't help thinking we're underpricing).

Firmly infinitive-only: agree (they agreed to extend the deadline), offer (she offered to help), refuse (he refused to sign), pretend (they pretended to understand), seem (she seems to be very experienced), tend (I tend to overthink things), fail (he failed to meet the requirements), manage (we managed to finish on time).

Common Mistake: ✘ He suggested to organise a meeting. — Suggest takes a gerund or a that-clause: ✔ He suggested organising [US: organizing] a meeting, or ✔ He suggested that we organise a meeting. And beware treating suggest like advise — ✘ I suggested her to apply should be I suggested that she apply, I suggested applying, or I advised her to apply. The verb you pick decides the pattern.

The deeper "why," and register

None of this is arbitrary. Infinitives — especially for purpose or intention — carry a sense of reaching towards something not yet done: you want it, you plan it, you hope for it. Gerunds are nouns; they treat the action as a thing in itself, an activity done or contemplated. That's precisely why I enjoy to work jars — enjoy is about experiencing an activity, not aiming at it — while I want to work is natural, because want is future-facing.

That distinction also does quiet work on tone. Infinitives after the elevated verbs — aim, seek, endeavour, undertake — read denser and more intentional, which is why they suit proposals and board papers: We aim to reduce processing time by 12%. Gerunds tend to read more active and direct, which is why Slack and internal chat run on them: I like finishing early on Fridays. Neither is a moral duty — it's a dial you turn to match the room. And would like / would prefer / would love + infinitive is near-automatic for polite requests in professional English: I'd like to raise two concerns, We'd prefer to schedule a call.

A couple of advanced pairs reward slow thinking. Go on + -ing = carry on the same thing (she went on talking through the issues); go on + to = move to the next stage (she went on to outline the budget). And in British everyday usage, need takes a passive-ish gerund — The report needs checking means it needs to be checked; needs to be checked is always the safe international version.

Edge cases that still bite competent writers

• help takes the bare or the full infinitive — help me prepare the pack / help me to prepare the pack, both fine.
• make and let take the bare infinitive — made us stay, let them leave; slip a to in and it sounds off.
• can't help wants a gerund — I can't help laughing.
• Fixed evaluation frames take gerunds — It's no use arguing, It's worth double-checking, There's no point waiting.
• Reaction adjectives often take an infinitive (delighted to confirm, happy to help), while prepositional adjective chunks stay on gerunds (capable of delivering, proud of finishing).

And, again, the boundary — perfect gerunds, passive infinitives and the rest of the form toolkit live in F1 and F3. This piece stays hard on selection after the governing verb, plus its prepositional cousin.

Pro-Tip: Reviewing a long draft, run Find for remember, stop, try, regret, look forward to, responsible for. Half a minute of deliberately flexing each one — and you filter out the silent meaning errors that even years of "pretty good" English tend to leave behind.

Quick recap: - Many verbs follow verb + object + to-infinitive (ask me to send, want them to come). - Firm gerund-only: admit, deny, suggest, consider, risk, avoid, can't help. - Firm infinitive-only: agree, offer, refuse, pretend, seem, tend, fail, manage. - Infinitives reach towards a goal and read more formal; gerunds treat the action as a noun and read more direct. - make/let take the bare infinitive; suggest takes a gerund or that-clause, not suggest + person + to.

UK vs US Note

Reassuringly, there's nothing to relearn here. The machinery — which verbs take gerunds, which take infinitives, which shift meaning — is shared UK/US. Only the surrounding spelling toggles: organise [US: organize], apologise [US: apologize], colour [US: color], and the UK verb practise [US: practice]. The gerund-or-infinitive choice itself never changes across the two varieties.

Key Takeaways

• After some verbs you need a gerund (enjoy working, finish writing); after others a to-infinitive (want to go, decide to stay) — learn short lists from your own writing.
• A small set — remember, forget, stop, try, regret — changes meaning with the form, so edit for intent, not luck.
• After any preposition, including look forward to and responsible for, use a gerund.
• Many professional verbs take verb + object + to-infinitive (ask me to send, expect them to reply).
• When you're genuinely unsure of a single verb, a good learner's dictionary labels it "+ -ing" or "+ to" with example sentences — far safer than guessing.

Check Your Understanding

1. Choose the correct option: a) We hope (getting / to get) a response by Friday. b) He suggested (to have / having) lunch together.
2. Explain the difference: I stopped smoking vs I stopped to smoke.
3. Correct the sentences: a) We look forward to receive your feedback. b) She's responsible for to manage the social media accounts.
4. Complete with the correct form: a) They encouraged me _ (apply) for the job. b) Before _ (start), I'd like to ask a few questions. c) He denied _ (take) the money.
5. Which is right for a formal email — A. I'd love meeting you to discuss this / B. I'd love to meet you to discuss this — and why?

Internal Links

• F1 — Infinitives: form and basic uses (how infinitives are built, and their other jobs)
• F3 — Gerunds: form and basic uses (gerund forms and their other roles)
• B9 — used to / be used to (for the be used to + gerund pattern)
• Pillar 2 — Phrasal Verbs (back-link only, for verb + particle combinations like give up smoking that then take a gerund)

Roger Fielding is a Bristol-based copy editor and non-fiction book editor with twenty-two years in the trade. He runs weekend writing workshops — and writes like someone who has fixed the same wobbly email line far too many times to stay pompous about it.