What is a good way of teaching the difference between gerunds and infinitives?

Question

I'm currently teaching Jr High in Japan and would appreciate some ideas or free website locations.

Answer 1

Remember, a gerund is a verb acting as a noun. There are other cases (usually where two verbs appear consecutively) where you use either the infinitive or the gerund FORM, but it's not an actual gerund. Examples:

1. Studying is important.
Studying = gerund

2. Do you remember turning off the oven?
turning = not a gerund

3. Did you remember to turn off the oven?
to turn = infinitive

In the latter two cases, whether to use the gerund FORM or the infinitive is a matter of memorizing what follows the initial verb. For example, after "hope" it is always the infinitive. After "avoid" it is always the gerund FORM. After remember (like in the examples above) it depends on the meaning.

Answer 2

Here are some websites that might have some ideas or lesson plans for you:

www.englishforums.com... www.world-english.org... www.tolearnenglish.com... www.zozanga.com... www.word2word.com... www.englishpage.com... http://sitemaker.umich.edu/eli.resources... www.usingenglish.com... www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice... www.learnenglish.org.uk... www.english-at-home.com... www.esl.net

Alternatively, if you dont find the information you need in any of these sites, here are some basic rules to keep in mind:

Use the gerund (verb+ing)
*after prepositions (What keeps you from sleeping?)
*after certain verbs, eg. like
*as the subject of a sentence (Is sleeping a waste of time?)

Use to+infinitive
*after adjectives (Do you find it difficult to sleep?)
*after certain verbs, eg. need
*to express purpose or reason (Do you use an alarm to wake you?)

{Some common verbs followed by the gerund are: like, love, hate, enjoy, mind, finish, stop}
{Some common verbs followed by to+infinitive are: would like, want, need, decide, hope, expect, plan, forget, seem, try, promise, offer, refuse, learn manage}
{begin and start can be followed by either the gerund or to+inf.}
{After auxiliary verbs (eg. do, will) and modal verbs (eg. can, should), we use the infinitive without to.}

Good luck!

Answer 3

There really is no difference in meaning. The first one is a participle using a gerund or a kind of verbal noun phrase using "-ing". The gerund follows "afraid of" (so we can not say afraid to waking the baby) The second is a participial phrase using the infinitive "to" so we need an infinitive after it. I'm afraid of going out late at night vs I'm afraid to go out at night. Im afraid of riding on roller coasters vs. Im afraid to ride roller coasters.

Answer 4

gerund : verb + -ing = noun e.g. talking, playing, understanding
--used as subject or object
e.g. playing tennis is fun or we enjoy playing tennis.

infinitive : to + verb (simple form) e.g. to talk, to play
e.g. i hope to see you again soon.

there are 2 groups of using gerunds and infinitive
1. verb + infinitive or gerund ( the meanings aren't different)
e.g. it began to rain / it began raining

2. verb + infinitive or gerund ( different meanings)
e.g. he stops talking to him. (no more talking)
he stops to talk to her. (stop doin something and talk)