English B1 · Gerunds and infinitives
Inglés B1 Tema 10 4:44 Narración en inglés · Subtítulos en inglés + 中文 quemados en pantalla
Capítulos
Transcripción
When a verb acts like a thing, English gives it one of two costumes: the gerund, swimming, or the infinitive, to swim. I enjoy swimming; I want to swim. Chinese uses the same form everywhere, so the choice is new machinery. There is no logic table that covers everything: the costume is chosen by the verb before it, and the lists must be learned. The good news: the lists are short, and the exams reuse them forever. The memory hook: every verb has a favourite costume. Enjoy only wears ing; want only wears to. They never swap, like two stubborn grandpas.
The gerund family takes verb plus ing: enjoy, finish, mind, avoid, keep, practise, suggest, imagine, miss. I enjoy reading; have you finished eating; we practised speaking; she suggested leaving early. Would you mind opening the window is the politest request in Britain. And as a subject, the gerund works alone: swimming is fun; learning English is a journey, not a sprint.
Pause and choose. I enjoy swimming. Enjoy only wears ing, and the grandpa refuses to swap. To swim belongs to the other family, swim is a bare verb where a thing is needed, and to swimming is a costume made of two costumes.
The infinitive family takes to plus the base verb: want, decide, hope, plan, promise, learn, afford, agree, refuse. I want to go; she decided to study medicine; we agreed to meet at five; he promised to call; I can't afford to buy it, the classic student condition. After to, the base form: to swim, never to swimming.
Pause and choose. I want to go home. Want only wears to, and the to is the bridge between the two verbs. I want go drops the bridge, and going dresses want in the wrong grandpa's costume.
A few verbs accept both costumes, and the meaning changes. Stop plus ing stops the activity: I stopped smoking. Stop plus to stops in order to: I stopped to buy water, or worse, I stopped to smoke; opposite meanings, one costume apart, and your lungs are listening. Remember plus ing recalls the past: I remember meeting her. Remember plus to is a task: remember to call her. And try: try adding salt is an experiment; try to finish is an effort.
Pause and choose. I stopped to buy some water: the walk paused in order to buy, so the to-infinitive. Stopped buying would end the water-buying era entirely, a lifestyle change nobody planned.
Two final guards. After a preposition, always ing: interested in learning, good at swimming, thank you for coming. A preposition is a preposition, and the gerund follows it like a shadow. And suggest never takes to: she suggested leaving early, never suggested to leave; the famous exception the exams know by heart. Chinese has no costume split, so enjoy to swim sneaks in; the grandpas never swap.
Make five true sentences about your life, one per family. I enjoy watching films; I have finished pretending otherwise. I want to travel; I am learning to cook; I can't afford to do both this month. I remember meeting my best friend, and I must remember to message them today. Try adding one English sentence to your diary tonight; try to keep it going for a week. The diary is where the costumes become habits.
Pause for four checks. I enjoy swimming: enjoy only wears ing. She decided to study medicine: decide only wears to. I stopped to buy water: stopped in order to. And she suggested leaving early: suggest never takes to. That closes B1. B2 waits with narrative tenses, the third conditional, and the causative — English's power tools.