Gerunds and Infinitive - Unit 02

Gerunds

Gerunds are form with the base form + ING
example
              walking, dancing, eating

Infinitive

Infinitive are form with TO + the base form
example
              to walk, to dance, to eat

Uses of gerunds and infinitive

• Gerunds and infinitives can be the subject of a sentence.

Writing poetry is difficult.
To write poetry is difficult.

• Gerunds and infinitives can be the object of a verb.

I like playing volleyball
I like to playing volleyball

•   Only gerunds can be the object of a preposition.

We are talking about swimming this week.

Gerunds	Gerunds are often used when actions are real, concrete, or completed. For example: I stopped smoking. The smoking was real and happened until I stopped.
Infinitives	Infinitives are often used when actions are unreal, abstract, or future. For example: I stopped to smoke. I was doing something else, and I stopped; the smoking had not happened yet.

 Reflections

Gerunds and infinitives are so use in english.. english is a language that doesn´t have enough words, for that reason they use gerunds and infinitives for refering to differents things... gerunds and infinitives have different uses... 

We have to be truly careful when we are using them... because when we are using a gerund, we are saying a sentence with a specific meaning, but if we use an infinitive in the same sentence the meaning can change... (see the picture above).

In some cases the meaning doesn´t change but in the majority yes.

there are some rules that we can follow, those rules show us when wiyh have to use a preposition or an infinitive.