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Infinitive or -ing?
Sometimes we need to decide whether to use a verb in its:

"¢-ing form (doing, singing)

or


"¢infinitive form (to do, to sing).
For example, only one of the following sentences is correct. Which one?

"¢I dislike working late. (???)
"¢I dislike to work late. (???)
When to use the infinitive
The infinitive form is used after certain verbs:
- forget, help, learn, teach, train
- choose, expect, hope, need, offer, want, would like
- agree, encourage, pretend, promise, recommend
- allow, can/can't afford, decide, manage, mean, refuse

"¢I forgot to close the window.
"¢Mary needs to leave early.
"¢Why are they encouraged to learn English?
"¢We can't afford to take a long holiday.
The infinitive form is always used after adjectives, for example:
- disappointed, glad, happy, pleased, relieved, sad, surprised

"¢I was happy to help them.
"¢She will be delighted to see you.
This includes too + adjective:

"¢The water was too cold to swim in.
"¢Is your coffee too hot to drink?
The infinitive form is used after adjective + enough:

"¢He was strong enough to lift it.
"¢She is rich enough to buy two.
When to use -ing
The -ing form is used when the word is the subject of a sentence or clause:

"¢Swimming is good exercise.
"¢Doctors say that smoking is bad for you.
The -ing form is used after a preposition:

"¢I look forward to meeting you.
"¢They left without saying "Goodbye."
The -ing form is used after certain verbs:
- avoid, dislike, enjoy, finish, give up, mind/not mind, practise

"¢I dislike getting up early.
"¢Would you mind opening the window?

Some verbs can be followed by the -ing form or the infinitive without a big change in meaning: begin, continue, hate, intend, like, love, prefer, propose, start.
"¢It started to rain.
"¢It started raining.
"¢I like to play tennis.
"¢I like playing tennis.

osirus0830 wrote:An infinitive is used as an adjective when its in its gerund form. For example,

Having discipline and determination, phoenix scored a 750 on the GMAT.

hey osirus

having is used here as a present participle form

when infintive is used as an adj it is modifying the noun and to know whether it is playing a role of adj or not do the following test
if a noun and a following infinitive pharse are bth replaced by noun , then that phrase is an infinitve pharse modifying that noun
for eg:

the need to sleep was nearly overpowering
it was nearly overpowering

thanks, you are correct.

New thing I'm going to start beginning today. I hope others join me. I am going to post a complex sentence, and we are going to break down each part of the sentence and the role that each word/phrase functions in the sentence. Kind of like diagramming. This sentence is compliments of the Phoneix



Because they consider it important that all of their employees have a clean criminal record, investment banks require each job applicant to undergo a stringent background check

osirus0830 wrote:New thing I'm going to start beginning today. I hope others join me. I am going to post a complex sentence, and we are going to break down each part of the sentence and the role that each word/phrase functions in the sentence. Kind of like diagramming. This sentence is compliments of the Phoneix



Because they consider it important that all of their employees have a clean criminal record, investment banks require each job applicant to undergo a stringent background check

Great Idea, Looking forward to see how to handle this sentence !

Because they consider it important that all of their employees have a clean criminal record, investment banks require each job applicant to undergo a stringent background check

"Because" is a subordinator. In this sentence it indicates the beginning of a subordinate clause

"they" is the subject of the subordinate clause

"consider" is the verb

"it" is a pronoun referencing undergoing a background check

"important" a noun

"that" is a modifier modifying "that"

"all of their employees" is a noun phrase

"have is a noun

"clean criminal" are adjectives modifying record

"record" is a noun

"investment banks" subject of independent clause

"require" main verb

"each" adjective

"job" noun functioning as adjective

"applicant" noun

"to undergo" infinitive, unclear what its doing here (thoughts?)

"stringent background" adjectives

"check" noun

Osirus - "... but what the guy is telling me sounds intriguing." don't forget they are salesman too! I wonder if there is anyone on here that has taken the Veritas Prep course.

money9111 wrote:Osirus - "... but what the guy is telling me sounds intriguing." don't forget they are salesman too! I wonder if there is anyone on here that has taken the Veritas Prep course.

true, I wouldn't be paying for it though. The only way I take any course is if I win a prize with this contest.

right... more power to ya! I'm sure you'd do just fine w/o the prep class.. but if you can take it.. it may not hurt... just be sure you don't get too burnt out...

money9111 wrote:right... more power to ya! I'm sure you'd do just fine w/o the prep class.. but if you can take it.. it may not hurt... just be sure you don't get too burnt out...

I used to worry about burn out, but then I go into work and find motivation to kill this test...lol

It does not refer to anything , that's just "placeholder It"

Giorgio wrote:It does not refer to anything , that's just "placeholder It"

ah, thanks

osirus0830 just make sure you take some time for yourself every now and then!!

Sentence of the day courtesy of Vivek

The Gyrfalcon, an Arctic bird of prey, has survived a close brush with extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970's

"The Gyrfalcon" is the subject of the sentence

"an Artic bird of prey" is the appositive modifying Gyrfalcon

"of prey" is a prepositional phrase modifying bird

"has survived" is the verb in the present perfect tense

"a close brush with extinction" is a noun phrase which is the object of the clause

"its" is a possessive pronoun referring to Gyrfalcon

"are" is the working verb of the clause

"now" not sure if now is a preposition or an adverb, can someone else chime in?

"five times greater than" introduces a comparison

"when" is a modifier but not sure what it modifies. Thoughts?

"the use of DDT" is a noun phrase

"was" is a verb in the present tense

"sharply" is an adverb that is modifying restricted

"restricted" is a verb in the past tense

"in the early 1970's" is a prepositional phrase

Osirus's grammar lesson for the day. Today I decided to tackle participles.

There are two main participles that you will see on the GMAT. The past participle and the present participle.

The past participle can be used either as the past tense of a verb or as an adjective.

The present participle can be used to construct one of the perfect tenses. It can also be used as an adjective. When you see the present participle and it is not being used to denote one of the perfect tenses, immediately look to see what noun/pronoun the participle is modifying.