Gerunds and Infinitives: -ing or To?

When one verb follows another, English forces a choice: -ing or to. There is no rule that predicts it — the pattern belongs to the first verb — so the useful thing is to learn the groups.

Verbs followed by -ing

enjoy, avoid, finish, mind, suggest, consider, imagine, practise, deny, admit, risk, miss, keep, give up

I enjoy cooking.

She avoided answering the question.

Would you mind waiting?

Verbs followed by to + verb

want, hope, plan, decide, promise, agree, offer, refuse, manage, learn, afford, seem, expect, pretend

We decided to leave early.

He promised to call.

I can't afford to buy it.

Verb + person + to

A large group needs a person in the middle before the to: tell, ask, advise, allow, persuade, remind, encourage, want, expect, teach.

She asked me to wait.

They allowed us to leave early.

I want you to see this.

Note that want works this way but suggest does not: ❌ I suggest you to come → ✅ I suggest that you come or I suggest coming.

And three that take a bare verb

After make, let and have (meaning "cause"), the to disappears.

• They made me wait. (not "made me to wait")
• She let him go.
• Help accepts both: He helped me carry it / helped me to carry it.

After prepositions: always -ing

This one has no exceptions and catches everyone.

She is good at solving problems.

Thanks for helping.

I'm interested in learning more.

Watch "to" as a preposition:

I look forward to hearing from you. (not to hear)

I'm used to working late.

If to belongs to a phrase like look forward to or be used to, it is a preposition, and -ing follows.

-ing as a subject, "to" as a purpose

An -ing form can be the subject of a sentence — and it counts as singular:

• Swimming is good for you. · Learning a language takes time.

And a bare to + verb explains why you did something:

• I came here to study. (= in order to study)
• She phoned to apologise.

Both, with a change of meaning

remember / forget

I remembered to lock the door. (I remembered, then locked it)

I remember locking the door. (I have a memory of doing it)

stop

He stopped smoking. (he quit)

He stopped to smoke. (he paused in order to smoke)

try

Try to open the window. (make an effort)

Try opening the window. (as an experiment — it might help)

mean

I meant to call you. (intended)

This means working weekends. (involves)

regret

I regret to inform you… (formal: I'm about to give bad news)

I regret telling her. (I wish I hadn't)

The pattern behind all of them — to points forward to a purpose or intention; -ing points back to the action itself.

Both, with no real change

begin, start, continue, like, love, hate, prefer — either form works.

It started to rain / started raining.

One nuance: after would like / would love, only to is possible. I like swimming (in general) but I'd like to swim (right now).

Test yourself

The quiz below includes the meaning-changing pairs.