Sentence Complexity and Embedding

Gerunds, Infinitives and Participles

Activity 12.6: Gerund or Infinitive?

Read each sentence and decide which ones are grammatical and which are ungrammatical.  Put an asterisk in front of the ungrammatical sentences.

1. I like to swim.
2. I like swimming.
3. The child began to cry.
4. The child began crying.
5. They hate cleaning up.
6. They hate to clean up.
7. We hope to win.
8. *We hope winning.
9. He dared to complain.
10. *He dared complaining.
11. *She avoided to crash the car.
12. She avoided crashing the car.

What does this show you about gerund and infinitive direct objects?
They aren’t free choices.  Which one you use depends on the main verb.  Some main verbs can take either a gerund or an infinitive, some can take only a gerund, and some can take only an infinitive

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