 to V or not to V. That is the question. What is the answer? In English, when do you use to V, to verb, and when do you use to verb ING? We'll break it down into four sections. One, modal expressions, to V or to verb. Two, infinitives and gerunds, to verb versus verb ING. Prepositional expressions, to verb versus to verb ING. Four, special phrasing, to verb versus to verb ING. Five, common contrast, to verb versus to verb ING. Some people use to say the word to is always followed by the simple form of the verb. For example, to go, to sleep, to have, to be. Now, people are used to saying that that is not always the case. In some situations we can say to going, to sleeping, to having, to being. What are those situations and when are they used? In this video, we'll look at this concept more carefully. Number one, let's start with to V. To verb is often used as part of a modal expression and cannot be separated from its partner modal. Modals are words like can, should, may and could. Modal expressions or phrasal modals are as follows. ought to, be going to, have to, have got to, used to, be supposed to, be to, be able to. Here are some examples. I really ought to go. She used to live in France. We have to leave now. I have got to be there on time. He is able to play the guitar. I'm going to be late. You are to be here at nine o'clock. They are supposed to hurry. To verb is part of these expressions. We cannot change that. For example, we don't say he ought to do it. We say he ought to do it. We don't say they are able to do it. We say they are able to do it. We don't say we have to going. We say we have to go. To, more about to verb. Sometimes the form to be is called the infinitive and it is used in many ways. For example, to know me is to love me. Infinitives are not real verbs. In some cases they are actually used as nouns. For example, to ski is the highest form of recreation. Notice that to ski is the subject of this sentence and thus it is a noun. For example, we can also say skiing is the highest form of recreation. In this case, the subject of the sentence is skiing which is a gerund form, which is the verb ing form. Actually this sentence is much more common and skydiving is higher. Back to to v. A more common usage of the infinitive to v is as an object. For example, I like to swim to v. I like swimming verb ing. The point is I like something. Something is a noun. For example, I like raspberries. I like soccer the game. I like an action. I like to play soccer. The focus here is on the action or activity or on doing something. For some strange reason, in English grammar, actions can be divided into categories depending on the main verb that they follow. For example, I like to ski. I like skiing. Certain main verbs require the infinitive, for example, to ski. Certain main verbs require the gerund form, verb ing, skiing. Let's look at some examples. Main verb plus to v. I want to ski. I need to ski. I plan to ski. I wish to ski. Decide to verb. Agree to verb. Expect to verb. Hope to verb. Main verb plus verb ing. Enjoy skiing. Go skiing. Keep skiing. Quit skiing. Suggest verb ing. Consider verb ing. Avoid verb ing. Practice verb ing. Some verbs like start, like, and love can be used interchangeably. That is, it's okay to use either the to verb form or the verb ing form. But that's the topic of another video. Gerund usage here is verb ing, not to verb ing. We'll save that for later. What about verb ing? Now it gets a little tricky. Prepositions can be followed by the verb ing gerund form of the verb. Little words like in, on, up, of, for, to, after, before, and so on carry a lot of power. They can determine what follows them. And usually it's the ing form. For example, I am tired of walking. I am interested in playing football. After playing, I went to sleep. George had to give up smoking. Remember to use verb ing after prepositions. For example, after the words in, on, up, of, for, to, after, before, and so on. Uh-oh. Do you see what I see? Two is sometimes used as a preposition. Three, here's where it becomes confusing. Sometimes the word to is used as a preposition and sometimes it is used as part of an infinitive. For example, I would like to see you again. I look forward to seeing you again. Note the differences among these. To verb is the infinitive form. To verb ing is a preposition to plus a gerund verb ing form. Verb ing is just a simple gerund. How do we distinguish these forms? How do we tell the difference? One way is to think in terms of action and activity. I'm interested in an activity. The activity is playing football. I want to do an action. I want to play football. I look forward to an activity. To playing football. Another way is to take out the verb or substitute a noun. In place of it. For example, if we take out the verb play and say I want to football, that doesn't work. It's incorrect. So, to verb is necessary here. I want to play football. Now look at the next two sentences. If we take out the verb I'm interested in football, it's okay. We can substitute the word I'm interested in playing or I'm interested in playing football. Both of those sentences are okay. Next, I look forward to football. If we take out the word play and put something else in, it works. Example, I look forward to playing or I look forward to playing football. So, if we take out the word, which is a verb, and substitute it with a noun, then it makes the difference here. If you can't take out the verb, I want to football, then you have to keep the infinitive form. If you can take out the verb and it still works, then you can use the ing form. Another way is to learn certain prepositional expressions with 2v. For example, these expressions are followed by 2verb. Think action. Need to verb, want to verb, hope to verb, wish to verb, would like to verb, mean to verb, care to verb, tend to verb, happen to verb, know how to verb. The next two columns use the word be at the beginning of the expression. Be willing to verb, be allowed to verb, be reluctant to verb, be inclined to verb, be delighted to verb, be happy to verb, be glad to verb, be afraid to verb, be required to verb, be compelled to verb. These prepositional expressions are followed by 2 plus verb ing. Think of activities. Be allowed that many of the expressions with be incorporate verbs used like adjectives. We'll look at the first two columns without be. Admit to verb ing. Submit to verb ing. Confess to verb ing. Look forward to verb ing. Resort to verb ing. Give into verb ing. With regards to verb ing. We in four use the word be in the expression. Be can be something like is, are, am, was, or were at the beginning of the expression. For example, be used to verb ing. Be limited to verb ing. Be opposed to verb ing. Be dedicated to verb ing. Be accustomed to verb ing. Be addicted to verb ing. Be committed to verb ing. Be restricted to verb ing. Four special expressions. Let's look at some examples. Can you see what is happening here? I am tired of running. Gerund is used as an object of the preposition of. I'm too tired to run. Infinitive is used to indicate action. Also the word to has an influence on how this expression is used. When we see to and enough, we use the expression to verb. I'm interested in playing. The gerund is used after the preposition. This is an activity. It's interesting to play. This is infinitive usage. It's talking about an action. Here's some additional information. You may use the infinitive form to plus verb after simple adjectives. Also use it in to and enough expressions. For example, it's important to find good friends. It is difficult to stay in line. He is old enough to ride on that. Let's look at this sample sentence structure. It is adjective to verb. This structure enables us to move the action to the end of the sentence and put the commentary, which is your personal opinion or interpretation at the beginning of the sentence. For example, here we have the commentary first and the action second. It is important to be here on time. Important is what you think or your opinion. Being here on time is the action. Let's see what happens when we reverse the order. To be here on time is important. Or being here on time is important. That's better and more common when we use the ing form at the beginning of a sentence. Let's look at some other examples. It's great to meet you. It's great meeting you. This is much more common because we're talking about how great and wonderful the experience is. Look at the other side. To meet you is great. That sounds quite strange. Meeting you is great. That one's okay. It's a little bit more common. We want to focus on the experience, which is meeting you. So sometimes we want to put that at the beginning. It's great. It's a great experience to meet you. Let's look at the third example. It isn't necessary to fix the pipe. To fix the pipe isn't necessary. Fixing the pipe isn't necessary. That one's better and much more common when we start the sentence with an ing form. Common contrasts. Here are a few contrasting sentences to help you remember. With to verb. With to verb ing. I used to live in Utah. This is a modal expression. Used to verb. It's talking about a past experience or a past habit. I don't live there anymore. I am used to living in Utah. This is a form of be accustomed to, which means I'm still living there. What's the difference here? Between used to and be used to. Can you see how the word be is used in the sentence? In the second one. I am used to living in Utah. Next. I am opposed to, I am supposed to go. This is a modal expression. That means I have to go or I must go. On the other side. I am opposed to going. That means I do not want to do the activity. I am supposed to go. Must go. I am opposed to going. I don't want to go. The next one. I hope to see you. Hope here is the main verb. And the main verb requires that the infinitive follows. I look forward to seeing you. I look forward to something. I look forward to seeing you. This is a prepositional expression that requires the verb ing to follow it. You can think of it like this. I used to live in Utah. Two verb is glued to the modal or the main verb. I used to live in Utah. We have to leave right away. I am used to living in Utah. The verb ing can be separated from the preposition. Remember that be is important here at the beginning of the expression. I am used to. He is used to. They are used to. I am used to something. What? I am used to living in Utah. I look forward to something. I look forward to seeing you soon. Ready for some practice? Fill in the blanks with two verb, verb ing, or two verb ing. For example, I look forward to meeting you. I look forward to meeting you. Take some time and do the exercises. Feel free to pause the video if you'd like more time to complete this. Answer key. I look forward to meeting you. I would like to see you again. The Henderson's really enjoy fishing. We have got to get out of here. I am not used to working so late. He was too tired to feed the dog. Sarah is addicted to shopping. It is essential to wash the dishes. Cleaning the sink is not so important. We can also say to clean the sink is not so important, but cleaning the sink is much more common. I am not interested in hearing gossip. Did you happen to buy paper towels? Hope that was helpful. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up in the comment section. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our channel. Thanks for watching. If you have an idea for our next video, please send us an email at the link below. 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