INFINITIVE AND GERUNDS

Lesson Topic: Infinitives

To help the poor people of the world is a noble goal.

In the above sentence, which words form the infinitive? To help. An infinitive is the base form of a verb with to. Here are some more infinitives:

To sleep To wash To love

An infinitive phrase is a group of words with an infinitive (it is NOT the whole sentence). Again, looking at the above example, what is the infinitive phrase? To help the poor people of the world.

nfinitives and infinitive phrases can be both subjects and objects in sentences. Take a look at these examples:

SUBJECT To study hard will increase your chances of getting into college. OBJECT Kathy wants to study with her friends.

There are some verbs that are followed only by infinitives. For example,

Hesitate She didn’t hesitate to tell the boss that some employees were stealing office supplies. Offer The Martin Family offered to watch their neighbor’s dog for the whole week. Promise The school promised to help me find an apartment. Want We want to visit all of the historic sites in Tehran.

These words are rarely followed by gerunds (nouns that look like -ing ending verbs).

For a list of verbs that are followed by infinitives, click here. For a list of adjectives followed by infinitives, click here. For a list of verbs followed by infinitives + object, click here. For a list of verbs that are followed by gerunds, click here.

Brisbane, Capital of Queensland - "G'DAY" sung by Slim Dusty

Learn English with Steve Ford-Peppy 23-Get Phrasal Verbs

Mejor es ir a descansar, mañana se hará cada vez mejor; obsesionarse con la perfección, es como querer sembrar en el mar, o nadar en el desierto.

Phrasal verbs

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English L sound after long vowels

So do I, Neither do I

Mejor es ir a descansar, mañana se hará cada vez mejor; obsesionarse con la perfección, es como querer sembrar en el mar, o nadar en el desierto.

KIND, SORT AND TYPE

Very often it makes no difference which of these words we use. But good dictionaries point out some subtle differences. In fact, sometimes only one of these words is correct. For example, it would be wrong to use ’sort’ or ‘kind’ in sentence 1 below.
Compare these three English sentences:

1. What is your blood type?
(Expected answer is a precise named category.)

2. What sort of prices do they charge?
(Expected answer is a description rather than a named category.)

3. What kind of dog is that?
(Probable answer is a named category, but not necessarily as precise as 1 above.A descriptive answer is also possible.)

So …

‘type‘ usually means a precisely defined category.

‘sort‘ is more general, often about character rather than definition and can be used in a negative
way
e.g. What sort of person would do a terrible thing like that?

‘kind‘ is about half way between, usually referring to large categories or families of things that are naturally related.