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Study Resource: List of verbs that take infinitives vs. gerunds

By: Isabel McKay

English verbs that are done to actions can follow a few different patterns. The boxes below illustrate these patterns and list some common verbs that follow each pattern.

VERB + INFINITIVE

Example: Maria wants to bring snacks.

Verbs that can be used before an infinitive verb with to:

afford	agree	aim	appear	arrange	ask	attempt
(can’t) bear	beg	begin	care	choose	claim	condescend
consent	decide	demand	deserve	desire	endeavor	expect
fail	forget	go	go on	get	guarantee	happen
hasten	hate	have	hesitate	hope	hurry	intend
learn	like	long	love	manage	mean	need
neglect	offer	ought	plan	prefer	prepare	pretend
promise	proceed	refuse	regret	prefer	say	seem
(can’t) stand	start	refuse	tend	think	threaten	try
volunteer	want	wish	yearn

Note: Recall that any verb can be used before an infinitive of purpose. Sometimes this may look like they are taking an infinitive as their object, but there is a difference in meaning:

We stopped to eat lunch.
→ We stopped. Why did we stop? to eat lunch. = Purpose Infinitive
We pretended to eat lunch.
→ We pretended. What did we pretend? to eat lunch. = Object Infinitive

VERB + GERUND

Example: Maria recalled bringing snacks.

Verbs that can be used before a gerund:

acknowledge	admit	advise	allow	anticipate	appreciate	avoid
(can’t) bear	cease	celebrate	confess (to)	consider	continue	defend
delay	despise	discontinue	discuss	dislike	dread	encourage
enjoy	escape	explain	fail	fear	feel like	finish
forgive	get (down) to	give up	go on	hate	(can’t) help	imagine
involve	keep (on)	like	look forward to	love	mention	(not) mind
miss	need	neglect	omit	object to	permit	postpone
practice	prefer	prevent	propose	put off	quit	recall
recommend	recollect	regret	remember	report	resent	resist
resume	risk	(can’t) stand	start	stop	suggest	support
tolerate	try	understand	urge	be worth

Note: There are some other verbs (eg. learn, choose...) that cannot come before gerunds, but often come before -ing nouns that used to be gerunds, but now stand for something more concrete than a simple action. For example:

❌I learned running a marathon.
→ Here running a marathon is a gerund. It represents a specific action.
✅I learned painting from Mrs. Morris.
→ Here painting represents an organized course or skill. You could replace it with tennis, English, math, or yoga.

Verbs that can come before GERUNDS OR INFINITIVES

Example:

Maria loves to bake cookies.

Maria loves baking cookies.

love	like	hate	neglect	prefer	try*	begin
cease	continue	start	go on*	(can’t) bear	(can’t) stand	remember*
regret*	forget*	need*

*The following words change their meanings depending on whether they are used before gerunds or infinitives:

remember	remembered attending → picture a past event	remembered to attend → not forget
regret	regret lying → feel bad for past action	regret to lie → feel bad while you do an action
forget	forgot attending → could not picture past event	forgot to attend → did not remember
need	needed cleaning → someone else must do the action	need to clean → the subject must do the action
go on	went on singing → continued	went on to sing → did the action later in life
try	did the action later in life → did the action to see how it went	tried to paint → attempted to start the action

VERB + OBJECT + INFINITIVE

Example: Maria told him to bake cookies.

advise	allow	ask*	beg*	choose	command	convince
encourage	expect	force	get	help	instruct	intend
invite	mean	need	order	permit	persuade	prepare
promise*	remind	request	select	teach	tell	urge
volunteer	want	warn	wish	would like	would love	would prefer

*Words where the subject can also the subject of the infinitive verb be:

Mary promised her mother to be good.
→ Mary will be good

VERB + for + OBJECT + INFINITIVE

Example: Maria wished for him to bake cookies.

aim	arrange	argue	ask	beg	fight	intend
long	mean	plan	prepare	push	wish	would hate
would like	would love	would prefer

VERB + BARE INFINITIVE

can	could	do (auxiliary)	feel	had better	hear	let
listen (to)	make	may	might	must	shall	should
see	watch

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Study Resource: List of verbs that take infinitives vs. gerunds

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