Page 134 - Oxford_English_Grammar_Course_Basic_2015

SECTION 9 infinitives and forms

grammar summary

in f in it iv e s : (to) go, (to) break, (to) see etc
-ing form s (also c a lle d 'gerunds'): going, breaking, seeing etc

We can use both -ing forms and infinitives as subjects (but -ing forms are more common).
Smoking is bad for you. (More natural than To smoke is bad for you.)
We can use infinitives to say why we do things.
I got up early to catch the 7.15 train.

After some verbs we use infinitives; after others we use -ing forms.
I expect to pass my exams. (NOT I expect passing ...) I'll finish studying in June. (NOT I'll finish to study...)
We can use infinitives after some adjectives and nouns.
She's ready to leave. I'm glad to see you. I've got work to do.
After prepositions we use -ing forms, not infinitives.
You can't live without eating. (NOT... without to eat.)
I usually watch TV before going to bed. (NOT...

Infinitives often have to before them; but not always.
I want to go home, but I can't go now.

I I s really want to smoke, but at that age it’s ill and smelling bad. And I realised that
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t
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a
o
s
m

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started smoking when I was 16.1 didn’t
n
g

k
i
really want to sn
it was stupid to spend so much money
important to imitate your friends. Once I on a ridiculous habit. So I tried to stop.
had started, of course, it was hard to stop. Hundreds of times. I kept on giving up. I
And smoking gave me something to do became an expert on giving up smoking.
with my hands. Whenever I met strangers, Nothing worked: I always started again.
I couldn’t help reaching for a cigarette to At last I had a piece of luck. I got
give me confidence, to make me look terrible bronchitis - so bad that I simply
(I thought) cool and sophisticated. couldn’t smoke. It lasted for months.
Soon I couldn’t get through a And when I finally recovered, I realised
day without smoking twenty or thirty that I had broken the habit. I didn’t have
cigarettes. But smoking made me feel ill to start smoking again.
and smell bad, and I was tired of feeling
And I never did. X
THP it <tp>t

INFINITIVES AND -ING FORMS 119