Verbs followed by infinitives or gerunds

[Flogger]

Hello,

I guess one of the problems that many learners have it is about verbs followed by infinitives or gerunds. There are lots of verbs and each of them has its own distinct structure. It seems really confusing to me. Don't know how to cope with it Don't you know that how I can overcome this issue?

Any helps are appreciated.

Regards.

 

[emsr2d2]

Can you give us some specific examples which are causing you problems?

 

[Flogger]

Can you give us some specific examples which are causing you problems?

You know what? I'm sick of memorising. If I want to speak formally I have got to memorise a great deal of literary or formal words! If I want to speak grammatically then I have got to memorise all the prepositions coming after the verbs. The problem is that expressing your intention is easy but expressing it in the typical English is so hard. Darn.

You cannot believe it, I have been spending a lot of time to memorise all the literary and formal vocabulary but I can't retrieve many of them. at first, English seems easy but when you are soaked in it, you will find how frustrating it is.
----------------

Take the example below:

1) He avoided answering my question.

If I were to write the above sentence I would have said: He avoided to answer my question.

 

[Skrej]

There are numerous lists all over the internet, but I've found the best is practice, practice, practice.

However, you don't really need to try and memorize all of them at once - start with some of the most common ones.

When I introduce them to my students, I give them the various lists, but then have them highlight the ones I feel are used the most, tell them to memorize those, and refer to the list for ones they're unfamiliar with. You can find some basic lists as well as a lot of practice exercises here. The exercises are in groups of ten, I usually have my students do 5 or so at a time, over several weeks.

Begin with memorizing most of the list of verbs which can take both gerund or infinitive with little difference in meaning - they're among some of the most frequently used, and there are relatively few of them.

 

[emsr2d2]

Not a teacher

As far as I [STRIKE]understood[/STRIKE] understand it, there are a certain number of verbs that you have to memorize. [STRIKE])[/STRIKE] It's not a big deal! ;-)

See above. Don't try to make your own emoticons. Ending a sentence with ) is not correct. Don't leave a space before a full stop, comma, question mark or exclamation mark.

 

[boehm]

Take the example below:

1) He avoided answering my question.

If I were to write the above sentence I would have said: He avoided to answer my question.

Not a teacher. 'Avoided' requires an object. 'Answering' is the object of the verb. Treat the gerund as a noun. I hope this explanation simplifies your problem.

 

[Donna Norton]

How would you learn a thing without memorizing? And who told you that learning English would be easy? Rome wasn't built in a day. So learn and practice and you will succeed!

 

[Narkises]

There are numerous lists all over the internet, but I've found the best is practice, practice, practice.

However, you don't really need to try and memorize all of them at once - start with some of the most common ones.

When I introduce them to my students, I give them the various lists, but then have them highlight the ones I feel are used the most, tell them to memorize those, and refer to the list for ones they're unfamiliar with. You can find some basic lists as well as a lot of practice exercises here. The exercises are in groups of ten, I usually have my students do 5 or so at a time, over several weeks.

Begin with memorizing most of the list of verbs which can take both gerund or infinitive with little difference in meaning - they're among some of the most frequently used, and there are relatively few of them.

Thank you Skrej. Your webpage is really helpful.

 

[Narkises]

See above. Don't try to make your own emoticons. Ending a sentence with ) is not correct. Don't leave a space before a full stop, comma, question mark or exclamation mark.

What? "There ARE a certain number of verbs..."

 

[Rover_KE]

I deleted 'Oh, Jesus!' Narkises.

Many Christians find that expletive offensive.

 

[Narkises]

Sorry. I didn't know that. I thought that it's a kind of asking help from Christ; like : oh my God!
Why is it offensive? What dose it mean?

 

[Tarheel]

Sorry. I didn't know that. I thought that it's a kind of asking help from Christ; like : oh my God!
Why is it offensive? What DOES it mean?

Some would call it a mild expletive. It is usually a means of expressing frustration.

 

[kilroy65]

What? "There ARE a certain number of verbs..."

Yes, it is correct. When we use "a number of", we refer to countable nouns in the plural. You could read it as "There are several/many/a few/a lot of verbs..."

 

[Tarheel]

Sorry. I didn't know that. I thought that it's a kind of asking help from Christ; like : oh my God!
Why is it offensive? What DOES it mean?

Please note that "Oh my God!" (abbreviated as OMG!) is an expression denoting surprise or shock (or, possibly, some other strong emotion).

While "God" is certainly used in prayer, that particular expression isn't.

 

[Tarheel]

There are number of ways to say "more than one"