Unit 6: Gerunds and Infinitives I. Gerund Preposition + gerund bored with, fond of, look forward to, get used to, insist on I’m bored with waiting. Mike insisted on buying her a drink. Gerund as the subject of the sentence Learning English is fun! Common phrases + gerund It’s (not) worth... This book is worth reading. It’s no good... It is no good trying to apologize. There’s no point... There’s no point carrying on with this. Verb + gerund liking and disliking enjoy, dislike, hate phrasal verbs go on, give up, put off some phrases with can’t can’t help, can’t stand other verbs avoid, delay, finish, keep, risk, suggest go + sports or leisure activities go skiing, go dancing, go shopping II. Infinitive Adjective + infinitive Your writing is difficult to read. It’s lovely to see you again. Infinitive of purpose I’m calling to find out if you stock spare parts. Verb + infinitive plans and decisions aim, arrange, choose, decide, plan, prepare expectations demand, expect, hope, want, wish, would like promises and refusals fail, guarantee, offer, promise, refuse other verbs agree, learn, manage, seem, tend Verb + object + infinitive advise, allow, help, remind, teach, use Noun + infinitive attempt, effort, opportunity, way It was good opportunity to work and travel. This is an easy way to stop smoking. III. Gerund or infinitive: no change in meaning begin, bother, continue, intend, start It was starting to get dark. IV. Gerund or infinitive: change in meaning forget, stop, regret, remember, try I definitely remember posting the letter. X I must remember to post the letter. I’ll never forget flying to Mexico. X Sorry, I forgot to turn off the lights. I regret spending all the money. I’ve got none left. X I regret to inform you that we... I tried clicking on the box, but it doesn’t work. X I’m trying to run this computer program. We stopped buying from that supplier. X I stopped to buy something for my wife. Put the VERBS and other words in brackets into their correct forms, add prepositions, particles or auxiliary verbs if necessary. You may need to use the passive forms of the verbs: 1 Three of the bank’s employees ______________________________________ (ACCUSE, yesterday, BUY) shares while in possession of inside information. 2 The treasurer ________________________________ (ADMIT, LOSE) $10,000 of the company’s money in a Las Vegas casino. 3 The consultants ______________________________________ (advise, the company, restructure) its middle management. 4 The management _______________________________ (agree, show) the documents to the trade union representatives. 5 Buying just one ordinary share will _____________________________________ (allow, you, vote) at the Annual General Meeting. 6 The production manager _________________________________ (apologize, arrive) late for the meeting. 7 I have ______________________________________ (arrange, come back) at short notice if any problems arise during my holiday. 8 Because of the cash flow crisis, the company ________________________________ (attempt, borrow) a further $100,000. 9 The company’s staff were asked ________________________________ (avoid, speak) to journalists. 10 We ______________________________________ (BE not aware, lose) any customers because of these delays. 11 The company ______________________________________ (believe, distribute) profits among both staff and shareholders. 12 Quality problems were ______________________________________ (blame, the company, lose) 20% of its market share. 13 The new factory must ______________________________________ (be capable, produce) a range of different products. 14 I hate fog. I ___________________________________ (can’t stand, wait) for hours at airports. 15 Despite the mixed market research reports, we are going to _____________________________________ (carry on, develop) this product. 16 The R&D department ______________________________________ (complain, lose) 10% of its budget. 17 Rather than diversifying, we are going to ___________________________________ (concentrate, make) our traditional products. 18 I would like to thank all of you for ______________________________________ (contribute, increase) our sales this past year.