Gerund and Infinitive Exercises
Gerund or infinitive?
After one verb, English may require the -ing form (enjoy swimming), the to-infinitive (decide to go), or either — sometimes with a change of meaning (stop smoking vs stop to smoke).
- Gerund after:
- enjoy, finish, avoid, suggest, mind, practice, keep, can't stand + -ing
- Infinitive after:
- decide, want, hope, plan, promise, agree, refuse, learn + to + verb
- Either, same meaning:
- start, begin, continue, like, love (I like reading / to read)
- Either, different meaning:
- stop, remember, forget, try: I stopped smoking ≠ I stopped to smoke
- After prepositions:
- always the gerund: good at drawing, interested in learning
Examples
She enjoys hiking in the mountains.
enjoy + gerund
We decided to postpone the trip.
decide + to-infinitive
He stopped smoking two years ago.
stop + gerund = quit the habit
He stopped to smoke outside the office.
stop + infinitive = pause in order to do it
I'm interested in learning Japanese.
after a preposition, always -ing
Practice exercises
Choose the correct form
Select the correct option to complete each sentence.
1.I really enjoy ___ new people at conferences.
2.They decided ___ a new house next year.
3.Please remember ___ the door when you leave.
4.She's very good ___ complex ideas simply.
5.He avoided ___ the difficult question.
Complete the sentences
Type the correct form (gerund or to-infinitive) of the verb in brackets.
Put the words in order
Click the words in the correct order to build the sentence.
11. Build the sentence:
12. Build the sentence:
13. Build the sentence:
14. Build the sentence:
True or false?
Decide if each statement is true or false.
15."I enjoy to read" is correct English.
16.'Stop doing something' and 'stop to do something' mean different things.
17.After prepositions, verbs always take the -ing form.
18."I forgot posting the letter" means I didn't post it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a gerund?
A gerund is the -ing form of a verb used as a noun: "Swimming is great exercise", "I enjoy reading." It can be a subject, an object, or follow a preposition.
Which verbs are followed by the gerund?
Common ones: enjoy, finish, avoid, suggest, mind, keep, practice, consider, imagine, miss, can't stand, give up. Example: "She finished writing the report."
Which verbs are followed by the to-infinitive?
Common ones: want, decide, hope, plan, promise, agree, refuse, learn, offer, expect, manage, afford. Example: "He agreed to help us."
Which verbs change meaning between gerund and infinitive?
The big four are stop, remember, forget and try. Stop doing = quit; stop to do = pause in order to do. Remember/forget + to-infinitive looks forward to a duty; + gerund looks back at a memory. Try + to-infinitive = attempt something difficult; try + gerund = experiment with a method.
Why is it 'I look forward to hearing from you' and not 'to hear'?
Because in 'look forward to', the word 'to' is a preposition, not part of an infinitive — and prepositions are always followed by the -ing form. The same applies to 'be used to' and 'object to'.
Gerunds and infinitives: making sense of verb patterns
When one verb follows another in English, the second verb's form is not free — it is dictated by the first verb. 'Enjoy' demands -ing, 'decide' demands to-infinitive, and there is no deeper logical rule that predicts which verb takes which pattern. This is why gerunds and infinitives frustrate learners: it feels like memorisation because, to a large extent, it is.
That said, useful tendencies exist. Verbs pointing forward in time — want, hope, plan, decide, promise, expect — overwhelmingly take the to-infinitive, which itself carries a sense of purpose and futurity. Verbs describing the activity itself or an attitude toward it — enjoy, avoid, mind, finish, keep, practice — prefer the gerund, which behaves like a noun naming the activity. These tendencies won't cover every verb, but they turn blind memorisation into educated guessing.
One rule, however, is absolute: after a preposition, always the gerund. Good at drawing, tired of waiting, interested in learning, before eating, without thinking. This rule explains the notorious 'look forward to hearing' — the 'to' there is a preposition, not an infinitive marker. Any time you can put a noun after the word (look forward to the weekend), a verb in that position must wear -ing.
The meaning-changing verbs are the advanced layer. With stop, remember, forget and try, both forms are grammatical but say different things. 'I stopped drinking coffee' ends the habit; 'I stopped to drink a coffee' interrupts a journey. 'Remember to send the invoice' is an instruction; 'I remember sending it' is a defence. Exam writers love these pairs precisely because they test meaning, not just form.
The most efficient way to learn verb patterns is in chunks: record each new verb together with its pattern and a personal example sentence — 'suggest doing: She suggested going out.' The exercises above cover the highest-frequency verbs from each group plus the classic meaning-change pairs, so completing them builds exactly the pattern bank you need for fluent, accurate English.