[Vocabulary] verbs followed by gerunds

[Koeman]

Hello!
The preamble to my question:
I've faced the "rule" about after which verbs we must use gerunds and after which infinitives and I was stuck in it because the rule says there are no rules about it and one way to cope with this problem it's just to learn these verbs by heart. Thus it made me collect a list of verbs followed by gerunds, honestly I had just been surfing on the Internet and had been able to find only roughly 90 such verbs. It took me some time to learn them and I was back to look for any more, but I've failed in finding new ones. That's why it causes me ask the question below

The question:
how many (approximatly) words followed by gerunds exist and where can I find them as a list ? I wonder if there is any list which includes more then 90 verbs followed by gerunds. Well maybe it had better to ask how the native speakers manage to distinquish either verb followed by a gerund or an infinitive?

any help would be appreciated
thx a lot in advance

 

[TheParser]

Hello!
The preamble to my question:
I've faced the "rule" about after which verbs we must use gerunds and after which infinitives and I was stuck in it because the rule says there are no rules about it and one way to cope with this problem it's just to learn these verbs by heart. Thus it made me collect a list of verbs followed by gerunds, honestly I had just been surfing on the Internet and had been able to find only roughly 90 such verbs. It took me some time to learn them and I was back to look for any more, but I've failed in finding new ones. That's why it causes me ask the question below

The question:
how many (approximatly) words followed by gerunds exist and where can I find them as a list ? I wonder if there is any list which includes more then 90 verbs followed by gerunds. Well maybe it had better to ask how the native speakers manage to distinquish either verb followed by a gerund or an infinitive?

any help would be appreciated
thx a lot in advance

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, Koeman.

(1) You have asked a great question that interests many learners.

(2) Some teachers say to memorize the list.

(3) Other teachers say you will go crazy if you try to do that.

(4) Still other teachers say just READ - READ - READ. Sooner or

later, you will start to get a "feel" for the matter.

(5) The only thing that I can offer is something mentioned in The

Grammar Book by Mesdames Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman.

(a) It seems that Professor D. Bolinger noticed something very

interesting:

(i) Often (NOT always) infinitives = something you want to do, but you

have not done it:

I WANT to go there.

I HOPE to learn Russian.

(ii) Often (NOT always) gerunds = something you have ALREADY done:

Max ENJOYS swimming. (How could he enjoy it if he had not already
experienced swimming?)

Judy AVOIDED talking to Harry. (She had already had a bad experience

with him, so she decided to avoid him this time.)

*****

Sadly, this is a REALLY difficult matter. Sometimes memorizing a list

will not be enough:

Here is a famous example used by many teachers (you probably already

know it):

Tom stopped TO SMOKE 15 minutes ago. He was working 15 minutes ago. He stopped. He smoked for 15 minutes. Now he is returning to the office.

Martha stopped SMOKING in 2009. She was a regular smoker, but one
year ago, she said: No more cigarettes for me! She has never smoked again!



***** Let's have a little quiz:

It was very cold in the room.

(a) I tried CLOSING the window. What does that mean?

(b) I tried TO CLOSE the window. What does that mean?

***** Answers *****

(a) I DID close the window, but the room was still cold.

(b) I WAS NOT able to close the window because there was a problem

with the window.

***** All of these examples in my post are credited to the ladies'

excellent book.

***** Thank you *****