Grammar Notes

1. Infinitives

A. To-infinitives are written in the base form following the word to. They are commonly seen after certain verbs, including agree, decide, expect, happen, pretend, promise, manage, and tend.

B. Bare-infinitives are similar to to-infinitives, except they are not preceded by the word to. They often come after the object of a sentence or immediately after the main verb. Bare-infinitives are often seen after the following verbs: let, make, hear, see, feel, modals (can, could, shall, would, etc), had better, and would rather.

- The shipping company agreed to give the small clothing manufacturer a discount if they were made their primary logistics company.

- The manager made the staff stay late to finish the report before the meeting tomorrow morning.

2. Functions of To-Infinitives

- Used to indicate the purpose or intention of an action (a subject complement)

- Serving as the subject or the object of a sentence

- Serving as the adverb in a sentence to indicate what something will be used for

- Used as an adjective describing a noun

- Our goal is to reduce the amount of paper waste by twenty percent.

- To be late for this meeting will be a grave error on our part.

- To keep up with their competitors, Hartford Motors has changed their pricing structure.

- The report to be given to the manager must be checked for errors by the team leader.

3. Gerunds

- Gerunds as the subject of a sentence are used to emphasize the action or process of doing something, though they can also be used to make a noun of a verb that does not have a natural noun form.

- They can come after the be-verb, becoming the subject complement.

- They are used after prepositions and phrasal verbs as their objects.

- Many verbs or phrases require a gerund or noun to follow them, such as avoid, consider, deny, enjoy, feel like, give up, imagine, mind, and postpone.

- Using the company computer for personal work is not allowed.

- The manager’s favorite activity at conferences is networking.

- The company is afraid of losing this contract to a competitor.

- At such a great price, Martin Clothing Company leaped at buying out the smaller company.

- The president stated he didn’t want to postpone announcing our first quarter results.

4. Expressions Requiring a Gerund

A gerund is necessary after some expressions: be busy, it’s no use, can’t/cannot help, have difficulty.

- Our staff is busy trying to find a solution to your problem.

- While many think it’s no use returning a faulty product, we encourage our customers to return anything they are unhappy with.

- We couldn't help noticing you have been a member of our site for the past five years.

5. Infinitives vs. Gerunds

- Both an infinitive and a gerund can be a subject or a subject complement.

- A gerund can be the object of a preposition, while an infinitive cannot.

- Only a few verbs allow both infinitives and gerunds to be used as their objects: hate, love, and like. Usually, only one or the other is possible. Gerunds usually describe an action, while infinitives describe a more abstract concept or idea.

- To throw out all of this product would be a waste of money.

- Throwing out all of this product would be a waste of money.

- The customer is interested to attend one of our classes.

- The customer is interested in attending one of our classes.

- While we like to hold our meetings outside, sometimes it is not possible.
- While we like holding our meetings outside, sometimes it is not possible.

- I hate to mention this, but the manager decided not to go with your idea.
- I hate mentioning this, but the manager decided not to go with your idea.