Infinitive or Gerund - Part 1

Infinitive or Gerund - ?

The area of infinitive or gerund is as much of a headache for students as it is for teachers. On the other hand, the native speaker has a perfect control over the choice. Again, it all comes down to the instinctive use of language and to how our brains have programmed the information in terms of the positional dynamic of pronunciation. 

Back in the classroom, however, many teachers still use the old tedious method of list learning which essentially achieves two purposes:

1. That the teacher, having the lists, is shown to be knowledgeable.

2. That certain students will excel at list-learning, gaining confidence at the expense of others.

Assuming that the area needs to be learnt in such a fashion, native speakers would need to learn in the same way and if the area was actually difficult or confusing, many natural errors would, in fact, result. Of course, in reality, no errors are made by native speakers when choosing a gerund or infinitive in sequence to another verb, which means that the logic is inherent! 

 

A New Logic - Sequence and Expectation

When we use two verbs together, the first verb acts to describe an action coordinated by the second. For example: I like to eat / eating chocolate; I promise to go tomorrow; He stopped writing.

In this way, we are able to express our thoughts, hopes, offers, threats, plans, decisions and much, much more in respect of the action of the related verb.

When we look at the real time sequence of the two verbs, we can start to understand the instinctive logic that a native speaker uses to make an instinctive choice of either a gerund or an infinitive. Basically, in time sequences there are three possibilities.

1. 

   Infinitive or Gerund?

   The first verb in the sequence (written or spoken) actually happened second, meaning that the second verb is in a relative past to the first (inverted real time order). As such the action of the second verb is seen as an activity in the past. An activity is represented by the gerund (-ING).
   
   
2. The two verbs happen simultaneously. As such the ideas are parallel and/or progressive. Therefore, once again, we use a gerund (-ING).
   
   
3. The sequence of the verbs is chronological, with the second verb pushed into a sequential future, hence the infinitive (TO-).
   
   
   But let's take a look at some examples to understand all this better.
   
   
   1)  He admitted stealing the money
   
   
   Here we have two verbs: admit - which in English means to confess (and not allow - false friend -Latin languages) and - steal (remember - rob = steal from). Logically, we cannot confess to the act of stealing before actually doing it. Therefore, we can see that the second verb here, in the gerund, occurred in a relative past time sequence, thereby being first in the real time sequence of the two verbs.
   
   
   Further example: I appreciated receiving that letter
   
   
   Again, we can see that we cannot appreciate receiving the letter before we actually do receive it. Therefore, when the action happens before the modulating verb (first verb) the gerund is used to show the action is a finished past activity. 
   
   
   2) She is considering changing her job.
   Verbs of contemplation, as one might expect, are not snappy decisions. Such drawn out deliberations are perfect for gerund expression, which adds the idea of the progressive or repetitive state. 
   
   
   further examples:
   
   
   • I envisage being up to my neck in un-payable bills unless....
   • She must practice playing the piano every day.
   • He has contemplated moving to New York.
   We can further observe that the gerund is used independently of whether the modulating verb refers to past, present or future time. The logic here is that, independent of the time frame, what we are looking at is a parallel activity to the modulating verb.
      
   3) He expects to move to New York.
   
   
   Obviously the expectation precedes any actual “move to NY” action. In our example, as we see, the first verb in the phrase actually happens first in real time with the second relative verb reflecting a sequential action. To push the idea in the verb forward to this relative future, we employ the pronoun to plus the verb word, i.e. we use the infinitive form.
   
   
   They agree to sell the house .
   1^st idea - the agreement; 2^nd idea - the sale
   We have arranged to go on holiday in June.
   1^st idea - the arrangement; 2^nd idea - the holiday
   
   
   The use of the infinitive helps project the second verb into the right chronological sequence. As such the idea of the "Infinitive of Reason" clearly fits into this logic and serves nicely to demonstrate it further.
   
   
   Why are you reading this?
     “I don’t know!”
     Because you want to improve your English.
     To improve your English.
   
   
   The use of the infinitive in this case is convenient because the preposition to shows the way forward; it shows the intention.
   Just as because is projected forward to give reasons and explain ideas, so the infinitive, propelled by the preposition to, launches the intention forward. We can now see, from the example, the reason for going to the bank:
   
   
   Why did John go to the bank? 
   He went to exchange some traveller’s checks.