STOP DOING THAT!
He stopped eating cakes
He stopped to eat cakes
What’s the difference?
-ing is an activity. Swimming, running, skiing and painting are all activities. You can put them at the beginning of a sentence. Swimming is good for you. Eating cakes is bad for you.
-to has an implication of future, something you haven’t done yet. He was painting but he stopped painting to eat cakes. He stopped to eat cakes.
So, he stopped eating cakes. Now he doesn’t eat cakes.
He stopped to eat cakes. The next thing he did was eat cakes.
Verbs that are followed by -ing
- DENY He denied going out without permission
- INSIST She insisted on paying for dinner
- GIVE UP They gave up trying after the fifth goal
- REGRET I regret being rude to your friend
- LOVE You love travelling, don’t you?
- NOT MIND I don’t mind telling you, but keep it a secret
- ENJOY She really enjoys gardening
- BE TIRED OF I’m tired of cooking. Let’s go out
- APPROVE OF The teacher approves of reading
- TALK ABOUT We talked about visiting Paris
- MENTION She mentioned seeing your cousin
- BE HAPPY ABOUT They are not happy about losing the match
- LOOK FORWARD TO I’m looking forward to going on holiday
Try them out with these -ing words:
Eating sleeping visiting missing showing leaving driving stealing watching
Verbs that are followed by to + infinitive
- REFUSE She refused to accept the present
- EXPECT They expect to win the match
- WAIT We are waiting to catch the bus
- WANT I really want to travel more
- WOULD LIKE Would you like to go to Australia?
- BE BOTHERED I can’t be bothered to clean the house
- BE TOO +adj She was too tired to cook so they they went out
- TELL He told me to read more
- HOPE They hope to buy a new house next year
- MANAGE We managed to catch the bus
- NEED You need to eat a balanced diet
- DECIDE I have decided not to go to Oviedo
Try them out with these verbs:
Write leave sell start move sleep ride paint buy show
Here are some links with further exercises: