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hello lovely students and welcome back
to english with lucy today i have a
grammar lesson for you we're going to
conquer a mistake that i hear made
all the time why do we say
i enjoy walking
but also i love
to walk
why can't we say
i enjoy to walk why do we say
i plan to come but not
i plan coming it's all about gerunds and
infinitives and it's a tough subject but
we're going to cover everything today
and you will leave this lesson with a
much better understanding and a slightly
wider vocabulary as always there is a
free pdf and exercise pack that goes
with this video if you would like to
read a full summary of the lesson
and take lots of extra exercises to test
your understanding then download it now
by clicking on the link in the
description box you enter your name and
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course offers updates and news right
let's get started with the lesson we're
going to take a look at how we can
change verbs into verbal nouns called
gerunds and infinitives and how we can
use these grammar tools effectively
firstly let's talk about gerunds what on
earth is a gerund it's not as
complicated as it sounds it's a verb
that ends in ing that acts as a noun for
example we can take the base verb
walk
add ing
and it makes walking walking is our
gerund and if we make a sentence using
this gerund walking is our subject
walking always puts me in a good mood
walking the gerund is the subject that's
a really important rule to remember not
every verb ending in ing
is a gerund take a look at the
progressive tenses or the continuous
tenses they use a be verb
and the present participle like a gerund
this adds ing to a base verb i am eating
she is talking so how do we know if a
verb ending in ing
is a present participle or a gerund well
gerunds always act as nouns or noun
phrases
never as a verb jenny enjoys walking
walking is acting as the object of this
sentence what does jenny enjoy
walking take a look at these two
sentences
jenny enjoys walking
jenny is walking right now
in the first sentence we have walking as
a gerund
walking is the object of that sentence
what does jenny enjoy doing
walking in the second sentence jenny is
walking right now
walking is acting as the verb or part of
the verb she is walking
be verb plus the present participle okay
enough about gerunds let's move on to
infinitives i also said that we use
infinitives to create verbal nouns and
infinitives are the simplest form of a
verb to make an infinitive we simply
place two in front of the base verb
infinitives are sometimes called
two infinitives and this always reminds
me of buzz lightyear two infinitives and
beyond
to infinity
and beyond we'll take our base verb walk
we add two and we have our infinitive to
walk in a sentence
she expected to walk right in okay we've
covered the basics
now i think it's time to look a little
deeper at how we use gerunds and
infinitives let's start by looking at
how we use them in similar situations
firstly let's look at them as objects of
a sentence the basic form of a sentence
in english is subject plus verb plus
object when a gerund comes before the
main verb in a sentence it will act as
the subject of that sentence you saw
this in the example i used earlier
walking always puts me in a good mood
walking is the subject of that sentence
i can replace walking with a noun and
the subject will still make sense harry
potter always puts me in a good mood
let's have a look at a few more examples
playing the guitar was always his
favorite hobby
baking is a great way to relieve stress
reading helps me keep my mind sharp if i
say that my mind is sharp it means i'm
quick to think i'm not slow i'm sharp
cheating will never get you anywhere in
life now that first example is
interesting can you see that i
underlined playing
and the guitar that's because the gerund
there is used as part of a noun phrase
we could make baking part of a noun
phrase by saying baking a cake
is a good way to relieve stress using
gerunds as the subject of a sentence is
pretty straightforward
but using two infinitives as the subject
of sentences
is slightly different when we use an
infinitive
as the subject of a sentence it can
sound extremely formal
almost
like you're writing
in the style of shakespeare it can sound
quite fancy and if that's what you're
going for then use
all of the infinitives you like it
sounds natural for me to say
singing gives me great pleasure but if i
say to sing gives me great pleasure it
doesn't sound wrong it just sounds
really formal and posh and slightly
old-fashioned as always with english
there are exceptions and we do use
infinitives as the subject of sentences
when we're giving instructions or giving
directions when we're quoting someone or
when we're giving a dictionary
definition for example to cook properly
place the fish skin side down or to get
there take the bus to the high street
and then cross the road okay
now we're getting to the good bit this
part is really going to help you make
some quick fixes we're going to talk
about using gerunds or infinitives after
certain verbs now some verbs some lovely
verbs allow you to use either a gerund
or an infinitive after it i'll show you
some examples but we've got way more
examples in the pdf and some exercise
questions so don't forget to download
that the link is in the description box
she hates sleeping late she hates to
sleep late both work beautifully we
prefer eating at home we prefer to eat
at home they started working on the
project at school they started to work
on the project at school eat sleep work
these are all fine they allow the use of
both infinitives and gerunds but you can
imagine what comes next there are some
verbs that only allow gerunds to follow
and there are some verbs that only allow
infinitives to follow let's take a look
at the verbs that allow gerunds first we
have the verbs consider
deny enjoy
imagine and suggest when we add gerunds
to these sentences they function as
direct objects he considered moving to
spain last year
jack denied cheating on his test wendy
enjoys watching movies at weekends
we imagined waking up to a beautiful
sunrise dan suggested bringing home a
rescue dog we can also use the verb go
plus a gerund when we're talking about
hobbies or recreational activities like
the following go hiking
go shopping
going swimming
going fishing went sightseeing went
snorkeling there are loads more and
these will come with practice we can
also use gerunds as the object of
prepositions meaning we use them after a
preposition let's quickly review some
common prepositions and how we can use
them with gerunds before
before completing university he already
had many job offers bye
by getting up early i'm ready for my
morning runs since i have been thinking
of him non-stop since meeting him except
he hates all forms of creative
expression except writing except here
means apart from without we decided to
take a trip without planning and after
after recovering from his injury
will retired from rugby okay so those
were the basic functions of gerunds to
get you started on your gerund journey
but let's jump into the infinitives now
just like with gerunds infinitives
follow certain verbs with these next
sentences the infinitives will act as
the direct object of the verbs we have
agree
we agreed to never speak to each other
again demand
they demanded to change their flight
manage
he managed to sell his house after only
three days on the market plan
she's planning to quit her job after
returning from holiday and a very common
one
want ben wants to travel to london by
train we also use infinitives after
certain verb and object combinations the
sentence pattern will be
subject plus verb plus object plus
infinitive take a look at these examples
they asked us to help with the washing
up she told him to bring home the dog
food he encouraged her to follow her
dreams we can also use infinitives after
adjectives take a look at these examples
he was happy to include her in the new
project at work they were sad to leave
the island at the end of the holiday we
are pleased to welcome you into our home
if you are still unsure on when to use a
gerund or when to use an infinitive i
have a little trick that may help you
but please bear in mind it doesn't work
all the time but it can guide you in an
emergency in the middle of an exam
in general
if the first action leads to a second
action then we use an infinitive he
wants to eat pizza for dinner if the
first action is happening at the same
time as the second action
then we use a gerund he likes eating
pizza for dinner right that is it for
today's lesson i hope you enjoyed it and
i hope you feel a little more clarity
over the topic of infinitives and
gerunds as i've said before the pdf
today is a gold mine we have included so
much more vocabulary so many more
examples and loads and loads of exercise
questions so you can test your
understanding you can make sure that
you've understood the lesson and you've
taken it all in and that you'll retain
it and remember it for later if you'd
like to download that pdf just sign up
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lots of lessons information and an
amazing ipa pronunciation tool you can
click on the phonemes and you can hear
me pronounce the phonemes and words that
contain those phonemes it's a great tool
try it out that's all from me i will see
you soon for another lesson
right let's get started with the lesson
on jet
well it's a verb
okay do it again whoops the basic form
of a subject oops oops my pronunciation
wasn't good then whoops deny
enjoy
whoops
jared
manage he managed to set i was
struggling with that manage he managed
to
stupid that's actually really hard to
say managed to
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you
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