Verbs followed by a gerund or an infinitive

When you need to have a verb form after another verb. The form of this second verb can be a gerund (I enjoy playing cards) or an infinitive (I hope to see you soon). This depends on the first verb; in the case of the previous examples, the gerund is the verb from that follows the verb "enjoy" while "hope" is followed by the infinitive. There are several possible situations:

• Some verbs are followed by a gerund (avoid, enjoy, imagine, understand...)
• Some verbs are followed by an infinitive (agree, ask, hope, prepare, want...)
• Some verbs can be followed by a gerund or an infinitive, with little or no change in meaning (begin, like, prefer, start...)
• Some verbs change in meaning depending if they're followed by an infinitive or a gerund (forget, remember, stop, try...)

Unfortunately, there are no rules for this, so we need to learn them by practice.

Study this lesson with the most common verbs that are followed by one or the other form. Then do the quiz and see how you're doing.