Drive long distance

GoesStation said:

That's okay, but the sentence with "while" works better for me.

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I see. Thank you so much. The only thing that is not clear to me is the grammar rule I mentioned in post #19. :shock:

Rachel Adams said:

Or perhaps ''I like to drive long distances and listen to music at the same time"?' At first I thought that in my example it was wrong to use an infinitive. I thought so because I read if ''like'' is followed by an infinitive it means you prefer to do something on a particular occasion but in my sentence I am talking about a habitual action.

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I like to fly. Sometimes I do that instead of walking.

Is that what you mean?

Tarheel said:

I like to fly. Sometimes I do that instead of walking.

Is that what you mean?

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No, I mean I read that it is wrong to use the present simple after ''like'' if you are talking about a habitual action. In my example, I was talking about habitual action ''like to drive'' but the use of the present simple wasn't wrong.

Neither "I like to drive" nor "I like driving" necessarily mean that driving is a habitual action. You might like driving but hardly ever do it. In fact, I'd say that liking doing something doesn't really come under the umbrella of habitual actions. You don't like doing something on a one-off basis - generally we either like doing something or we don't. We can like a thing on a more ad hoc basis. While eating a delicious meal at a restaurant, I might say "I really like this ratatouille" but I might have ratatouille at a different restaurant a week later and say "I don't like this ratatouille".

Rachel Adams said:

Or perhaps ''I like to drive long distances and listen to music at the same time?'' At first I thought that in my example it was wrong to use an infinitive. I thought so because I read if ''like'' is followed by an infinitive it means you prefer to do something on particular occasion but in my sentence I am talking about a habitual action.

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No, you're not talking about a habitual action. You're talking about a preference, so the infinitive is appropriate. The preference does not have to be about doing something on a particular occasion for you to use the infinitive. Here, for example, you're talking about a general preference.

If you want to talk about a habitual action, you shouldn't use like at all:

I drive long distances while listening to music.

jutfrank said:

No, you're not talking about a habitual action. You're talking about a preference, so the infinitive is appropriate. The preference does not have to be about doing something on a particular occasion for you to use the infinitive. Here, for example, you're talking about a general preference.

If you want to talk about a habitual action, you shouldn't use like at all:

I drive long distances while listening to music.

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I made a mistake in post # 23. I read that it is wrong not to use ''like+ infinitive when you are talking about choices and habits. Swan's exmple: ''When I pour tea I like to put the milk first.'' (Like =choose infinitive more natural)
But
''I like climbing/to climb mountains.'' (Like=''enjoy'' both forms possible.)
You said that in my example I was talking about a preference. I see now. Thank you!