Listen to the author reading this blog post:
by Liz Walter
Look at these two English sentences:
I agreed to pay for the damage.
He denied stealing the money.
You will see that each sentence has two verbs, but that the form of the second verb is different. In the first sentence, it is an infinitive with to (to pay), and in the second, it has an -ing form (stealing).
So how do you know which form to use? Unfortunately, there is no easy rule, but you can check in a dictionary such as the Cambridge Dictionary. For instance, if you click here on the word deserve, you will see the note [+ to infinitive] in front of the example with two verbs. Similarly, if you look at the entry for fancy, you will see the note [+ -ing verb].
The dictionary is very useful in this way, but in order to avoid errors, it is best to learn the patterns of very common verbs. For instance, you need to use a to-infinitive after decide, promise, want, need and many other common verbs:
They decided to take the train.
They decided take/taking the train.
Note that in negative sentences, not comes before the to-infinitive:
They decided not to take the train.
They decided to not take the train.
Similarly, the verbs avoid, finish, imagine and several others need an -ing verb, and you would lose marks in an exam for using an infinitive:
I try to avoid buying too many clothes.
I try to avoid buy/to buy too many clothes.
So far, we have looked at verbs that are followed immediately by another verb, but you also need to know the patterns for verbs that are followed by an object and then another verb.
For instance, advise, encourage, and invite need a to-infinitive for the verbs after the object, while verbs such as hear, prevent, and see need an -ing verb. Again, you can use the Cambridge Dictionary to check the patterns:
We advised them to leave immediately.
We advised them leave/leaving immediately.
They tried to stop us entering the building.
They tried to stop us enter/to enter the building.
It is also worth learning that the common verbs let and make (in the sense of ‘force’) need an infinitive without ‘to’ for the verb that follows them:
The teacher made her sit down.
The teacher made her to sit down.
In my next post, I will look at some tricky verbs that have different patterns according to their meaning, as well as verbs that are followed with a that clause or by two objects.