Comment | 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. (-: |
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