Grammar- Some Rules of Gerunds and Infinitives

1. After verbs of feeling and opinion > Gerunds Verbs: admit, avoid, consider, deny, dislike, enjoy, fancy, feel like, finish, can’t help, involve, keep, mean, mind, miss, practise, risk, can’t stand, suggest e.g: A healthy life involves taking exercises.	1. After some verbs > Infinitives Verbs: aim, fail, intend, learn how, long, Manage, need, offer, plan, prefer, refuse, try, want e.g: You need to fill in the blanks.        Do you want to help us?
2. Expressions with “spend “> Gerunds Expressions: spend (one’s) time, spend (quantity) time. e.g: I spent my time reading English        books.	2. After adjective that describe how someone feel about something >Infinitives Adjectives: afraid, anxious, ashamed, careful, determined, free, frightened, happy, keen, quick, ready, sorry, willing e.g: We are happy to celebrate our fifth         anniversary.
3. After prepositions that follow a verb or an adjective > Gerunds Prepositions: be interested in, apologize for, be used to, accuse (someone) of, specialize in, succeed in, insist on e.g: Are you interested in taking photograps?	3. After adjectives to give an opinion about something > Infinitives Adjectives: agreeable, amusing, boring, difficult, easy, hard, impossible, nice, good, important, necessary e.g: It’s necessary to understand grammar.
	4. After verbs followed by an object > Infinitives VERBS: advise, allow, dare, encourage, forbid, force, instruct, order, permit, persuade, remind, teach, tell e.g: My English teacher advised me to listen to              English music. ­­
	5. After some adjectives which can be used in phrases with “be” > Infinitives Phrases: be supposed to, be expected to, be allowed to, be prepared to e.g:  You are not supposed to do every         question correct.

Some verbs can be followed by -ing or to-infinitive  with different meanings.

                                                                                                      Which means:

Stop	I’ve stopped watching cartoons.	= Stop an activity
	We stopped to go to the toilets at the petrol station.	= Stop in order to
Try	I ‘ve tried to understand his English, but I was unsuccessful.	= Make an effort
	Let’s try restarting the computer.	= See if it works
Remember	Remember to bring your portfolio to the class tomorrow.	= Don’t forget
	I remember collecting marbles in our old neighbourhood.	= Past memory
Regret	I regret to tell you that your application has been rejected.	=To apologise for something bad. =To inform something bad. This is    used in more formal situations.
	I regret not saying goodbye before leaving.	= To be sorry now for something we did in the past.