like + -ing vs like+ to....

[Verona_82]

Hello,

I know British speakers use -ing with like/love/hate/prefer when they talk about a situation that already exists or existed. An example from Murphy's grammar:

Paul lives in Berlin. He likes living there (NOT He likes to live).

This 'rule' made me curious to find out two things.

1). Should I say "I love swimming at dawn" when I'm actually swimming at dawn and "I love swimming / love to swim at dawn" when I'm not in water?

2) Do American speakers draw any distinction between these two structures?

Thank you.

[crazYgeeK]

JUST A LITTLE STUDENT
As far as I know, "like v-ing" is used to express your hobby (for a long time) and "like to verb" is used to express your want at a certain time (for the moment or a short period of time).
Hope some teacher corrects me!
Thank you!

[Verona_82]

JUST A LITTLE STUDENT
As far as I know, "like v-ing" is used to express your hobby (for a long time) and "like to verb" is used to express your want at a certain time (for the moment or a short period of time).

Thank you! It seems like you're talking about "I'd like to+...".

Hope somebody sheds some light on this.

[JohnParis]

1). Should I say "I love swimming at dawn" when I'm actually swimming at dawn (You could. But, personally, I have always found it extremely difficult to conduct a conversation while swimming with someone at any time of day. If, however, you are in the habit of speaking to yourself, it definitely would be fine.) and "I love swimming / love to swim at dawn" when I'm not in water? (Again, you could. But, imagine you have just swam out to one of those nifty rafts some resort hotels have off their beach, and there is an extremely attractive person sitting on it that you have wanted to speak to since you arrived at the hotel. You muster your courage and say: "I love swimming. It really wakes me up (remember, it is dawn)" or "I love to swim at dawn. You can meet the most interesting people" or "I love swimming at dawn, don't you?"). The point is, being in our out of the water hasn't much to do with anything, does it?

2) Do American speakers draw any distinction between these two structures? No.

John

[Tdol]

2) Do American speakers draw any distinction between these two structures? No.

It is a BrE thing- I don't know about other variants, though.