Gerunds and Infinitives

Gerunds and infinitives are very common in the English language.

They can be used in many situations.

Sometimes you may use an infinitive and a gerund.

Sometimes you have to choose between the two, because using one may be completely wrong.

An infinitive is the verb form that has “to” at the beginning. For example, “to do,” “to sleep,” “to love” and “to create.”

It is the simplest verb form that you have to modify to fit into sentences.

For example, “She sleeps” no longer contains the infinitive of the verb “to sleep.” Instead, it has been conjugated into the simple present third person form of the verb “to sleep”: sleeps.

Infinitives are easy!

Gerunds are formed by adding “-ing” to the verb: “sleeping,” “drawing,” “swimming.” But they are not the “-ing” verb forms that you see in the present or past continuous tense.

They look the same, but gerunds are actually verb forms used as nouns.

Let’s take the infinitive of the verb “to sleep” and use it in two different sentences:

I am sleeping.

This is the present continuous. “Sleeping” here is part of the verb. It is not a gerund. Here’s the second sentence:

I don’t like sleeping.

This is present simple, but it contains a gerund. “Sleeping” is the direct object of this sentence.

Now that you know the difference between infinitives and gerunds, let’s introduce the rules that will help you use both correctly.