5A Coming of age

Gerunds and Infinitives

Gerunds are the -ing form of verbs used as nouns, while infinitives are the base form of the verb preceded by 'to'. For example, 'He enjoys running' (gerund) and 'They decided to buy a new car' (infinitive). Some verbs can take either form with the same meaning, such as 'like' and 'prefer'. However, the meaning can change with verbs like 'stop': 'Adnan stopped to look' (infinitive) means he paused to look, while 'Adnan stopped looking' (gerund) means he ceased the action.