63. VERBS + ONLY GERUND ONLY INFINITIVE LIST.C1

Common verbs followed by the gerund:
enjoy	I enjoyed living in France.
fancy	I fancy seeing a film tonight.
discuss	We discussed going on holiday together.
dislike	I dislike waiting for buses.
finish	We’ve finished preparing for the meeting.
mind	I don’t mind coming early.
suggest	He suggested staying at the Grand Hotel.
recommend	They recommended meeting earlier.
keep	He kept working, although he felt ill.
avoid	She avoided talking to her boss.
miss	She misses living near the beach.
appreciate	I appreciated her helping me.
delay	He delayed doing his taxes.
postpone	He postponed returning to Paris.
practise	She practised singing the song.
consider	She considered moving to New York.
can’t stand	He can’t stand her smoking in the office.
can’t help	He can’t help talking so loudly.
risk	He risked being caught.
admit	He admitted cheating on the test.
deny	He denied committing the crime.
mention	He mentioned going to that college.
imagine	He imagines working there one day.
tolerate	I tolerated her talking.
understand	I understand his quitting.
involve	The job involves travelling to Japan once a month.
complete	He completed renovating the house.
report	He reported her stealing the money.
anticipate	I anticipated arriving late.
recall	Tom recalled using his credit card at the store.

Common verbs followed by to + infinitive:
agree	She agreed to give a presentation at the meeting
ask*	I asked to leave early / I asked him to leave early
decide	We decided to go out for dinner
help*	He helped to clean the kitchen / he helped his flatmate to clean the kitchen
plan	She plans to buy a new flat next year
hope	I hope to pass the exam
learn	They are learning to sing
want*	I want to come to the party / I want him to come to the party
would like*	I would like to see her tonight / I would like you to see her tonight
promise	We promised not to be late
can afford	We can’t afford to go on holiday.
manage	He managed to open the door without the key.
prepare*	They prepared to take the test /the teachers prepared the students to take the test.
demand	He demanded to speak to Mr. Harris.
choose	I chose to help.
offer	Frank offered to drive us to the supermarket.
wait	She waited to buy a movie ticket.
would hate*	I’d hate to be late / I’d hate you to be late.
would love*	I’d love to come / I’d love him to come.
seem	Nancy seemed to be disappointed.
expect*	They expect to arrive early / they expect Julie to arrive early
intend	We intend to visit you next spring.
pretend	The child pretended to be a monster.
refuse	The guard refused to let them enter the building.
tend	He tends to be a little shy.
would prefer*	I’d prefer to do it / I’d prefer him to do it.
deserve	He deserves to go to jail.
appear	His health appeared to be better.
arrange	Naomi arranged to stay with her cousin in Miami.
claim	She claimed to be a princess.

*We can use an object before the infinitive with these verbs.

(Note that ‘help’ can also be followed by the infinitive without ‘to’ with no difference in meaning: ‘I helped to carry it’ = ‘I helped carry it’.)

These verbs can be followed by either the gerund or the infinitive with a change in meaning.

Remember + gerund

This is when you remember something that has happened in the past. You have a memory of it, like being able to see a movie of it in your head.

I remember going to the beach when I was a child. (= I have a memory of going to the beach).
He remembers closing the door. (= He has a memory of closing the door).

Remember + to + infinitive

This is when you think of something that you need to do. (And usually, you then do the thing).

I remembered to buy milk. (= I was walking home and the idea that I needed milk came into my head, so I bought some).
She remembered to send a card to her

Forget + gerund

This is the opposite of remember + gerund. It’s when you forget about a memory, something that you’ve done in the past.

Have we really studied this topic before? I forget reading about
I told my brother that we’d spent Christmas at Granny’s house in 1985, but he’d forgotten going

Forget + to + infinitive

This is the opposite of remember + to + infinitive. It’s when you want to do something, but you forget about it.

I forgot to call my mother. (= I wanted to call my mother, but when it was a good time to call her, I forgot. I was thinking about something else, and the idea to call my mother didn’t come into my head).
She keeps forgetting to bring his book

Try + gerund

This is when you do something as an experiment. The thing you do is not difficult, but you want to see if doing it will have the result that you want.

I wanted to stop smoking, so I tried using nicotine patches. (= Using nicotine patches was easy, but I wanted to know if it would help me stop smoking).
She tried giving up chocolate, but it didn’t help her lose weight. (It was easy for her to give up chocolate. She gave it up to see if it would help her lose weight, but it didn’t).

Try + to + infinitive

This is when the thing you do itself is difficult. In the present tense or future tense, this means you might not succeed in doing it. In the past tense, it means that you made an effort to do the thing, but you did not succeed.

I’ll try to carry the suitcase, but it looks too heavy for
She tried to catch the bus, but she couldn’t run fast

Look at the difference:

I tried giving up chocolate (it was no problem to stop eating chocolate) but it didn’t make me feel more healthy.
I tried to give up chocolate, but it was too hard. I always ate some when my friends offered it to

It was too hot in the room. I tried opening the window (it was easy to open the window). It didn’t help though, because it was very hot outside
I tried to open the window, but I couldn’t because it was

Stop + gerund

When we stop doing something it means the verb in the gerund is the thing that we stop. It can mean ‘stop forever’ or ‘stop at that moment’.

I stopped working when I was expecting a baby. (Working is the thing I stopped).
My grandmother stopped driving when she was 85. (Driving is the thing she stopped).
My boss came into the room, so I stopped browsing the
There was a fire alarm, so I stopped eating and went

Stop + to + infinitive

In this case, we stop something else in order to do the verb in the infinitive.

I stopped to eat lunch. (I stopped something else, maybe working or studying, because I wanted to eat
She was shopping and she stopped to get a cup of coffee. (She stopped shopping because she wanted to get a cup of coffee).

Look at the difference:

I stopped smoking. (I gave up cigarettes OR I threw away my cigarette at that moment).
I stopped to smoke. (I stopped doing something else because I wanted to have a cigarette).

Regret + gerund

This is when you are sorry about something you did in the past and you wish you hadn’t done it.

I regret going to bed so late. I’m really tired
She regrets leaving school when she was sixteen. She wishes that she had studied more and then gone to

Regret + to + infinitive

We use this construction when we are giving someone bad news, in quite a formal way. The verb is almost always something like ‘say’ or ‘tell’ or ‘inform’.

I regret to tell you that the train has been

The company regrets to inform employees that the London office will close next yea