Verb + gerund

👉 These take -ing: enjoy, avoid, suggest, finish, keep, mind, imagine, practise, admit, deny, miss:

• I enjoy cooking.

• He avoided answering the question.

• She suggested going out.

👉 After prepositions too: He’s good at cooking. She left without saying goodbye.

Verb + infinitive

👉 These take to + verb: decide, promise, want, hope, plan, agree, offer, refuse, afford, learn, expect:

• She decided to leave early.

• He promised to call me.

• We agreed to meet at six.

👉 Verb + object + to: tell/ask/want/expect someone to do: She told me to wait.

Both forms, different meaning

👉 The big four:

• stop doing = quit it / stop to do = pause to do it: I stopped smoking vs I stopped to smoke.

• remember doing = memory / remember to do = don’t forget: I remember locking the door vs Remember to lock it.

• try doing = experiment / try to do = attempt: Try restarting it vs Try to restart it.

• regret doing = feel bad about the past / regret to do = announce bad news: I regret leaving vs We regret to inform you…