Ron's ESL Blogs

Infinitives are used in a common sentence pattern:

ask somebody to do something
I asked my brother to get me a dictionary.
want somebody to do something
The professor wanted John to come to his office.
expect somebody to do something
Her parents expect her to be a doctor.

For some verbs, we don’t use it this way. For example:

I let him borrow my bike. (correct)
I let him to borrow my bike. (incorrect)

Here we use an infinitive without “to.” It is called a zero infinitive. There are a few verbs used this way.

Let

Dad let me drive his car.
Let’s go shopping together.

Make

The mother made her son clean his own room.
The movie made him cry.

Have

I had my brother carry my suitcase.

See

I saw the thief run away.
You can also say “see somebody doing something,” but you don’t say “see somebody to do something.”

Hear

I heard her sing in the room.

Help

My friend helped me fix my car.
My friend helped me to fix my car.

“Help” is a special verb. It can be used with or without “to.”

When we study infinitives and gerunds, a few special verbs need some attention. They can be followed by both infinitives and gerunds, but the meanings are different.

Try

“Try to do something” is different from “try doing something” in meaning. “Try to do something” means you make an effort to do something; “try doing something” means experimenting with something to see if it will work.

e.g.

The doctor tried to save his life.

Here you have to use the infinitive because it means the doctor made an effort to save the patient’s life; he didn’t experiment with different ways that might have saved the victim’s life.

e.g.

He tried using another method.

He experimented with different methods to see which one would work. Therefore, you need to use a gerund here, not an infinitive.

Remember

“Remember doing something” means you did something in the past and you remember it. If you “remember to do something,” you haven’t done it, but you will do it.

e.g.

Remember to lock the door. (The door is unlocked; you need to lock it.)
I remember locking the door. (You locked the door, and you remember that you did it.)
I remember seeing Obama once. (You saw Obama in the past.)
I’ll remember to buy a gift for my wife. (You haven’t done it yet.)

Forget

“Forget” is like “remember” regarding the use of gerunds and infinitives.

e.g.

I forgot telling her about it. (You told her about it, but you forgot you did it.)
I forgot to tell her about it. (You meant to tell her, but you didn’t.)
I forgot to bring an umbrella. (You didn’t bring an umbrella.)

I forgot bringing an umbrella. (You brought an umbrella, but you forgot that you did.)

Regret

I regret to tell you that … (You’re going to tell me something.)
I regret telling her the truth. (You told her the truth already.)

“Remember,” “forget,” and “regret” have one thing in common: An infinitive means something hasn’t happened yet, and a gerund means something already happened.

A common English sentence pattern is:

Subject + predicate + object

The subject and the object must be a noun or a pronoun; the predicate must be a verb. If you have to use a verb as the subject or the object in a sentence, you must change this verb into an infinitive or a gerund. That is, you have to put “to” before the verb (infinitive), or add “ing” to the end of the verb (gerund).

When we use a non-verb form (infinitives and gerunds) as an object, we need to be careful because some verbs must be followed by a gerund and some verbs must be followed by an infinitive.

e.g.

I enjoy music. (correct)
I enjoy listening to music. (correct)
I enjoy to listen to music. (incorrect)
I enjoy listen to music. (incorrect)

I decided to go home early today. (correct)
I decided go home early today. (incorrect)
I decided going home early today. (incorrect)

Here are three important lists of verbs:

a) Verbs that can be followed by both infinitives and gerunds

begin
start
like
love
hate
prefer
continue

try
remember
forget
regret
(These last 4 verbs can be followed by both, but the meanings are different.)

b) Verbs that can only be followed by gerunds

enjoy
mind
finish
avoid
deny
keep
consider
postpone
practice
quit
suggest

(The following phrases must be followed by gerunds.)
it’s no use
be busy
it’s worth
can’t help
have trouble (difficulty)

c) Verbs that can only be followed by infinitives

decide
expect
want
hope
manage
need
offer
plan
promise
refuse

You can add more verbs to the lists, but I think these are the important verbs that students need to remember first.

-Ron Lee

The past tense is to express the past time. How about the present perfect tense? When we compare the two verb tenses, we often explain it this way: The past tense tells us what happened in the past; the present perfect tense tells us that something happened in the past, but continues until now. This is not 100% correct.

Here is a sentence:

I have bought my house for 10 years.

When you ask your students if the sentence is right or wrong, a lot of students will tell you it’s right. Actually it’s wrong. Some students may tell you it’s wrong, but they don’t know why it’s wrong.

The problem is that there are two kinds of verbs. One is the verb of one-time action, the other is the verb whose action can continue. That is why we can say “I have lived in Pasadena for 10 years,” but we cannot say “I have bought my house for 10 years.” The reason is that “live” is a verb that can continue, but “buy” is a one-time action verb. When you “buy” something, you pay for it and it’s done. The action cannot continue “for 10 years.” It doesn’t make sense. To make it correct, we have to choose another verb. If you say “I have had my house for 10 years,” there will be no problem. For the same reason, we cannot say “My grandfather has died for 10 years,” but you can say “My grandfather has been dead for 10 years.”

Having said that, I don’t mean that one-time action verbs cannot be used in the perfect tense — they can. The problem is that one-time action verbs cannot be used in the perfect tense with the time phrase. Without a time phrase, any verbs can be used in the perfect tense.

I have bought my house. (correct)
I have bought my house for 10 years. (incorrect)
My grandfather has died. (correct)
My grandfather has died for 10 years. (incorrect)
He has left for New York. (correct)
He has left for New York for a week. (incorrect)

In the correct sentences above, we cannot say the action happened in the past and continue until now because one-time action cannot continue. Actually there are two uses of the perfect tense: a)Something happened in the past and continue until now; b) something happened in the past but still have an effect on the present. It is the second use of the present tense that is used in the above correct sentences. “I have bought my house” doesn’t mean “buy” continues until now; what it means is that it has an effect on the present – I don’t need to buy a house now and I have a house to live in.

- Ron Lee

When we talk about the future tense, we explain how to use “will” and “be going to” to express future time. Our students often do not realize that there are other ways to express future time.

a. The Simple Present to Express Future Time
When something is scheduled to happen, we use the simple present instead of the future.

e.g.

The train leaves at 7:30 this evening.
She retires next month.
Tomorrow is Thursday.
The president is to make a statement tomorrow.

When we use “be to” to express the future, it is more formal.

e.g.

You are to take three tablets a day.
He is not to stay here for the weekend.

b. The Present Continuous to Express Future Time

Future time can also be expressed by the present continuous tense.

e.g.

I’m having dinner with her tomorrow.
He’s taking his exam next week.
What’s Maria doing tomorrow?
Are you working this Saturday?

c. The Future Tense and Time Clauses

If we talk about the past, we use the past tense in both the main clause and the time clause.

e.g.
When Judy got home, her hair was still wet.

However, when we talk about the future, we cannot use the future tense in both.

e.g.
When Judy will get home, her hair will still be wet. (incorrect)
When Judy gets home, her hair will still be wet. (correct)

Students need to be told that we use the simple present tense instead of the future tense in the time clause when we express the future.

We often use “when” to introduce a time clause, but we also use other words to introduce a time clause.

e.g.

before
It won’t be long before the rain stops.

after
I’ll have lunch after I finish my work.

until
I’ll wait here until she comes.

as soon as
I’ll return it to you as soon as you come back.

The future tense is simple and easy to understand, but don’t forget to mention to students that it can sometimes be replaced by the simple present and the present continuous.

- Ron Lee