Ein "gerund" auf English, ist ein Verb als Hauptwort, i.e., "Swimming macht Spass".
Dewegen verstehe ich deine Frage nicht..... was soll ein Verb davor damit zu tun haben?

Und für Präpositionen gibt's eh keine Regel...

I think Jonas means verbs that are followed by an infinitive (I want to go), a gerund (I enjoy going), or either (I like to go / I like going).

Most of the verbs you just have to learn. However, there are lists and practice exercises on the internet -- try searching for 'gerund' + 'infinitive' + 'ESL.'

I'm not sure which prepositions you're thinking of. As far as I know, nearly all prepositions can be followed by a gerund instead of a noun.

sind das meistens nur die Modalverben?

Not really. Just because I'm in a generous mood, here's a list (from Azar, Understanding & Using Engl. Grammar):

gerund
go (swimming, running, skiing, etc.)
admit, advise, anticipate, appreciate, avoid, complete, consider, delay, deny, discuss, dislike, enjoy, finish, can't help, keep, mention, mind, miss, postpone, practice, quit, recall, recollect, recommend, resent, resist, risk, stop, suggest, tolerate, understand

infinitive
afford to, agree to, appear to, arrange to, ask to, beg to, care to, claim to, consent to, decide to, demand to, deserve to, expect to, fail to, hesitate to, hope to, learn to, manage to, mean to, need to, offer to, plan to, prepare to, pretend to, promise to, refuse to, seem to, struggle to, swear to, threaten to, volunteer to, wait to, want to, wish to

infinitive + person
advise someone to, allow someone to, ask someone to, cause someone to, challenge someone to, convince someone to, dare someone to, encourage someone to, expect someone to, forbid someone to, force someone to, hire someone to, instruct someone to, invite someone to, need someone to, order someone to, permit someone to, persuade someone to, remind someone to, require someone to, *teach someone (how) to, tell someone to, urge someone to, want someone to, warn someone to

infinitive or gerund, same meaning
begin, start, continue, like, love, prefer, hate, can't stand, can't bear

infinitive and gerund, different meaning
forget, regret, remember, try



As for prepositions, I think the only time there would be a question about that is with 'to.' A few verbs use 'to' as an ordinary preposition, not as part of the infinitive:

to be used to ____ing
to be accustomed to ____ing
to object to ____ing
to look forward to ____ing

It may help just to substitute a noun: used to the traffic, accustomed to her face, object to that idea, look forward to the party.



But when '(in order) to' answers the question 'Why?', it's like an infinitive:

I stopped smoking. (what? --> gerund)
I stopped (in order) to improve my health. (why? --> infinitive)
I stopped the video. (what? --> noun)
I stopped (in order) to watch a video. (Why did I stop? --> infinitive)
I stopped watching the video. (What did I stop doing? --> gerund)



It's hard for me to judge as a native speaker, but it's probably not necessary to memorize most of the infinitive ones. It's mainly those in the first group (gerund only) that give foreign speakers trouble, and many of them should already be familiar.

Hope that helps. (-:

Hey - that's helpful.

When I have to decide, I always try to figure whether there could also be a noun (Akkusativ-Objekt) behind the verb in question. Like, for example, in "admit" - I can have a sentence like: "he admits the crime", so obviously, the verb admit likes to be followed by an "Akkusativ-Objekt" (what's that in English?), which usually is a noun. Wherever that's the case, it's ok to put the gerund, because as Todd said earlier: What the gerund does is turn the verb into a noun.

Therefore: "He admits the crime" --> "he admits killing his brothers rabbit".

Try it out, it doesn't work always (in the list provided by hm, for example "manage to", "need to" and "deserve to" are counterexamples), but I use it as a rule of thumb.

Good morning
Thanks a lot to all of you - that really helps and makes life easier.
Best wishes
Jonas

In the years since I posted these lists, quite a few people have also asked about the question of gerund vs. infinitive after nouns and adjectives, not just verbs. I understand it's tricky, and I don't really have an easy shortcut, but this thread

related discussion: of+gerund vs. infinitive

gives some examples from a LEO user and from Michael Swan, Practical English Usage (3rd ed.), that could be useful as a starting point. Among them were

(1) gerund
the thought of ___ing
the idea of ___ing
tired of ___ing
good at ___ing

(2) infinitive
a plea to ___
an attempt to ___
no wish to ___
my decision to ___
any need to ___

(3) gerund or infinitive, possible change in meaning
hope to ___
no hope of ___ing
intend to ___
no intention of ___ing
prefer to ___
a preference for ___ing

We might be able to add to these noun/adjective lists by just noting other examples we come across when we come across them.

Swan is not as careful as Azar in sorting the verbs into the correct lists; he doesn't reliably separate the (1) gerund-only and (2a) infinitive-only from the (2b) infinitive with personal object, the (3a) either/or, and the (3b) either/or with a difference in meaning. However, if you can winnow them out of his messy lists, he does include several verbs that aren't in Azar's intermediate lists in #4 above, among them

(1) gerund
burst out (crying/laughing), contemplate, detest, endure, escape, excuse, face, fancy [BE], feel like, forgive, give up, imagine, involve, leave off, put off

(2a) infinitive
attempt to, beg to, choose to, dare (to), happen to, neglect to, trouble to

(2b) infinitive + person
beg (someone) to, command someone to, compel someone to, get someone to, help someone to, intend someone to, oblige someone to, request someone to, tempt someone to, trouble someone to

(3a) gerund or infinitive, no difference in meaning
forbid,* intend,* propose*

*... though with these the infinitive sounds much more natural to me, at least in AE; the gerund sounds distinctly old-fashioned or BE.

Perhaps some of you have yet other sources to supplement these lists, or you might notice individual additions when you come across them. I believe Azar had a more advanced-level book that I don't happen to have a copy of, and there are undoubtedly others since then.

And if anyone is serious about this, please double-check me, I copied all these sort of fast. (-;

related discussion: difference between suitable and is suited - #2

I'm not where I can check a reference, but I hope I'm correct in adding these to the list:

gerund
suitable for ___ing
(well) suited to ___ing

Der alte Faden ist eine Gelegenheit eine Irritation vorzutragen.

Im deutschen(!) Werbe TV wird in letzter Zeit eine "Anti Age Creme" angepriesen. Ich übersetze das als eine Creme gegen das Alter, also eine Creme, die die Zeit zurückdreht, eine Art Zeitmaschine. Gemeint ist daher vermutlich eine Creme gegen das Altern. Auch wenn es so etwas ebenfalls nicht geben kann, müsste es dann nicht "Anti Aging Creme" heissen?

"Anti-Aging Cremes" gibt es aber schon seit Jahren (in wechselnder Großschreibung und Bindestrichsetzung), da musste sich halt jemand was neues ausdenken, aber nicht zu neu.

Vermutlich soll Anti-Age bedeuten, dass es das sichtbare Alter bekämpft, oder so was.

So gesehen sind Anti-Age Cremes etwas für Leute, bei denen es für Anti-Aging Cremes zu spät ist...immerhin sind sie ja schon gealtert.
Aber ob das die beabsichtigte Aussage ist?

Anti-Age ist vermutlich ein verkapptes Programm zur Reduzierung der Rentenauszahlungen.

Another one that came up:

to make the mistake of ___ing

Ich hab auch noch zwei:

infinitive and gerund, different meaning:

go on, mean

Two more infinitives that came up recently:

(should) know better than to _____
far be it from me to _____

Difference:

He stopped posting his letters. = Er hörte (damit) auf, seine Briefe (in den Briefkasten) einzuwerfen.

He stopped to post his letters. = Er hielt an, um seine Briefe (in den Briefkasten) einzuwerfen.

Reinhard, das stand schon in #4. Aber doppelt kann ja nicht schaden.

related discussion: inveigle vs coax

gerund:
to inveigle/trick so. into ____ing

infinitive:
to coax/persuade so. to ____

Doesn't it really just have to do with the preposition that comes before the involved verb?

to- infinitive
of- gerund
into- gerund
for- gerund

Todd, klar, Präposition + gerund. Sobald ich weiß, dass ich im Englischen eine Präposition brauche (und welche), ist es einfach. Aber zwei Probleme sind damit verbunden. 1) to ist manchmal eine Präposition (looking forward to) und manchmal die Infinitiv-Partikel, und zweitens hat das englische Verb nicht immer eine Präposition dabei (stop smoking), im Deutschen steht aber der Infinitiv mit "zu", der zur wörtlichen Übersetzung verführt.

Und was ist mit "I look forward to seeing you"?

"I look forward to" is verb plus preposition, and verb plus preposition is followed by a gerund/"ing" form - what is difficult for non-natives sometimes, I suspect, is that "to" is both part of the infinitive and a preposition

That makes sense.

difficult for non-natives sometimes

Im Deutschen könnte man es wohl am ehesten mit der Substantivierung des Infinitivs vergleichen. Auf Verb + Präposition folgt ein Pronomen oder Substantiv.
Das gäbe die unidiomatische Formulierung Ich freue mich auf das Dich-Treffen oder die idiomatischere Ich freue mich auf das Treffen mit dir.
Im Deutschen brauchen wir halt in diesem Fall noch einen Artikel - und die Großschreibung.

So gesehen würde das auch die oft geäußerte Behauptung relativieren, im Deutschen gebe es viel mehr Substantive als im Englischen.

So gesehen würde das auch die oft geäußerte Behauptung relativieren, im Deutschen gebe es viel mehr Substantive als im Englischen.

exactly - after all, gerunds are effectively "Substantive"

related discussion: I am slow to express my opinion.

gerund
good/bad, (un)skilled, (in)experienced, (in)competent ...
... at ___ing

infinitive
slow, quick, happy, pleased, thrilled, delighted, sad, sorry, eager, reluctant, ashamed ...
... to ____

quick to speak
pleased to inform you
sad to report that
eager to try
etc.

"ashamed" wird oft mit dem Gerund verbunden:

"Ashamed of being white"
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt221469.html

I am not now, nor have I ever been ashamed of being black.
http://minglecity.com/forum/topics/blacks-ash...

Das ist einfach Teil der 'Nach Präposition kommt Gerundium'-Regel. Wenn also nach 'ashamed' eine Präp. steht, kommt IMMER das Gerumdium; wenn der Satz anders weitergeht, dann nicht. Das macht 'ashamed' nicht zu einem Wort, dass zwingend das G. braucht wie z.B. 'enjoy', daher finde ich es in diesem Faden eher verwirrend.

Yes; maybe part of the problem with including nouns and adjectives in this category at all is that it's really a collocation problem aka a preposition problem -- do you use the preposition 'to' or another preposition?

I wasn't trying to lay down strict categories, just to respond as further questions arose. If anyone has a better way to organize the topic, or would like to start a separate thread on a related topic like prepositions, I would certainly support that.

English speakers, do you use 'intend' with the gerund? Please comment in this related thread:

related discussion: to intend on doing sth

Another verb that takes the gerund:

accept ____ing

related discussion: Enough older - #143

infinitive or gerund, same meaning
begin, start, continue, like, love, prefer, hate, can't stand, can't bear
... + bother

related discussion: bother to do s.th. oder bother doing..?

Gerund:

to be prone to ____ing

related discussion: prone to