[Grammar] Which is more common?

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MrMid

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Hi everyone here, I've had an argument with my English teacher at my school, so I want to ask you, which form of these sentences is better, more common, or if they have different meanings:

We tried to find/finding a cheap flight, but we were too late.

My brother tried to learn/learning Japanese at night school, but he gave up after two months.


The next thing I want to ask you is if it's more common to use "ATM" or "teller machine", than "cash machine"?

Thank you for your answers.
 

billmcd

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Hi everyone here, I've had an argument with my English teacher at my school, so I want to ask you, which form of these sentences is better, more common, or if they have different meanings:

We tried to find/finding a cheap flight, but we were too late.

My brother tried to learn/learning Japanese at night school, but he gave up after two months.


The next thing I want to ask you is if it's more common to use "ATM" or "teller machine", than "cash machine"?

Thank you for your answers.

I began to post my response on your first question, but first I think I would like to know your opinion . With regard to your second question you would most likely hear "ATM" or "ATM machine" in AmE.
 

MrMid

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Thank you for your response, my opinion on the first question is that both are possible, but the infinitive form is more common, but I'm not native speaker, so I would like to know your opinion. And yes - I thought the ATM would be more common.
 

billmcd

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Thank you for your response, my opinion on the first question is that both are possible, but the infinitive form is more common, but I'm not native speaker, so I would like to know your opinion. And yes - I thought the ATM would be more common.

I agree with your opinion, but I'm not sure that the infinitive form is necessarily more common.

 

MrMid

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So if I understood right, the sentences have exactly the same meanings, but the continuous form might be more common, right?
 

Rover_KE

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In my opinion the infinitive form is more common. Others — possibly your teacher — may legitimately disagree.

In the UK, 'cash machine' is more common than ATM.

Rover
 
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