With appear, happen, pretend, seem

Note the difference between present and perfect infinitives here: Present infinitive:

He seems to be a great athlete = It seems that he is...

He seemed to be a great athlete = It seemed that he was... Perfect infinitive:

He seems to have been... = It seems that he was...

He seemed to have been... = It seemed that he had been... i.e. the action of the perfect infinitive is an earlier action; it happens before the time of the main verb. Other examples:

/ happened to have driven that kind of car before = It happened that I had driven that kind of car before. He pretended to have read the book =

He pretended that he had read it.

2 With the following verbs in the passive voice: acknowledge, believe, consider, find, know, report, say, suppose, think, understand:

He is understood to have left the country. (See 306.)

3 The perfect infinitive is possible but less usual with claim, expect, hope, promise:

He expects/hopes to have finished by June =

He expects/hopes that he will have finished by June.

256 The perfect infinitive continuous A Form

to have been + present participle:

He seems to have been spying for both sides.

В Use

It is used chiefly after auxiliary verbs and after appear and seem, but it can also be used after happen, pretend

and the passive of believe, know, report, say, understand:

He says he was talking to Tom. ~ He couldn't have been talking to Tom. Tom wasn't there.

I was following Peter closely. ~ You shouldn 't have been following him closely; you should have left a good space between the two cars. He appears to have been waiting a long time =

It appears that he has been waiting a long time. He pretended to have been studying =

He pretended that he had been studying.

24 The gerund

257 Form and use

The gerund has exactly the same form as the present participle:

running, speaking, working etc.

It can be used in the following ways:

(a) as subject of a sentence: Dancing bored him. (see 258)

(b) as complement of a verb: Her hobby is painting.

(c) after prepositions: He was accused of smuggling. (259)

(d) after certain verbs (261, 266)

(e) in noun compounds: a diving board (a board for diving off). The gerund here carries the main stress. (See 16.)

258 The gerund as subject

As already seen in 240 E, either infinitive or gerund can be the subject of a sentence when an action is being considered in a general sense. We can say:

// is easier to read French than to speak it or

Reading French is easier than speaking it.

The gerund, like the infinitive (see 240 F), can be the subject of a clause placed after believe, consider, discover, expect, find, think, wonder etc. After find we can omit that and the verb be, i.e. we can say:

He found that parking was difficult or

He found parking difficult.

But it is safer not to omit be after the other verbs. Note the possible difference between gerund and infinitive here: He found parking difficult would mean that he usually/always found it difficult. He found it difficult to park could refer to one particular occasion. It could also mean that he always found it difficult, but it is more usual to express this idea by a gerund. The gerund is used in short prohibitions:

No smoking. No waiting. No fishing.

But these cannot be followed by an object, so prohibitions involving an object are usually expressed by an imperative:

Do not touch these wires. Do not feed the lions. Gerunds are used in the saying Seeing is believing.

259 Gerunds after prepositions (see also 98)

д When a verb is placed immediately after a preposition the gerund form must be used:

What can you do besides typing?

I have no objection to hearing your story again. Touch your toes without bending your knees!

He is good at diving. She is fond of climbing. I'm not keen on gambling. I'm too afraid of losing. He was fined for being drunk in charge of a car. I'm against saying anything/I'm for saying nothing.

I'm tired of arguing. I'm fed up waiting, (colloquial)

This is a tool for opening tins. Do you feel like going out? After swimming I felt cold.

She disapproves of jogging.

What about leaving it here and collecting it later? He is thinking of emigrating.

I'm sorry for keeping you waiting. They escaped by sliding down a rope.

We had difficulty in finding a parking place.

You should be ashamed of yourself for behaving so badly. In spite of starting late he arrived in time.

Aren 't you interested in making money? There's no point in waiting.

В A number of verb + preposition/adverb combinations ('phrasal verbs') take the gerund. The most common of these are be for/against, care for, give up, keep on, leave off, look forward to, put off, see about, take to. (For go on, see 363.)

/ don't care for standing in queues. Eventually the dogs left off barking. I am looking forward to meeting her.

He put off making a decision till he had more information. He took to ringing us up in the middle of the night.

260 The word to

This word often causes confusion as it can be either (A) a part of an infinitive, or (B) a preposition.

A to placed after the auxiliary verbs be, have, ought, used and after going (in expressions such as ' the be going to form') is part of the infinitive of the following verb and is only added to remind students that the preceding verb takes the full infinitive, i.e. the infinitive with to. to is often placed after hate, hope, intend, would like/love, mean, plan, try, want and some others (see 247) to avoid repetition of an infinitive already mentioned:

Did you buy cheese? ~ No, I meant to (buy some) but the shop was shut.

В Otherwise to placed after a verb will probably be a preposition and will be followed by noun/pronoun or gerund. Note these expressions: look forward to, take to, be accustomed to, be used to:

/ am looking forward to my holidays/to next weekend/to it. I am looking forward to seeing you.

I am used to heat/hard work/bad food/noise/dust. I am used to standing in queues/to it.

Be careful not to confuse I used to/he used to etc., which expresses a past habit or routine (They used to burn coal; now they burn fuel oil only), with I am used to/he is used to etc., which means 'I am/he is accustomed to/familiar with':

/ am used to the cold. (It doesn't worry me.)

He is used to working at night. (He doesn't mind it.) (See 162.) A good way of finding out whether a to is a preposition or a part of an infinitive is to see if it is possible to put a noun/pronoun after it. For example a noun/pronoun could be placed after I am accustomed to:

/ am accustomed to it/the dark.

This to therefore is a preposition, and verbs used after to must be gerunds.

261 Verbs followed by the gerund A The most important of these are:

admit* keep (= continue)

anticipate * loathe

appreciate mean* (= involve)

avoid mind (= object)

consider* miss

defer pardon

delay postpone

deny* practise

detest prevent

dislike propose* (= suggest)

dread recollect*

enjoy remember* (= recollect)

escape resent

excuse resist

fancy* (= imagine) risk

finish save (sb the trouble of)

forgive stop (= cease)

imagine * suggest*

involve understand*

*See B.

The gerund is also used after the expressions can't stand (= endure), can't help (= prevent/avoid), it's no use/good and after the adjective worth.

o Other constructions with the above verbs

Starred verbs can also take that-clauses (see 346). For suggest and propose (= suggest), see 289. mean/propose (= intend) take the infinitive (see 269). For hate, like, love, prefer, see 295. For other verbs taking gerund or infinitive, see chapter 25. dread + infinitive is used in 'dread to think': / dread to think what this will cost.

С Examples of verb + gerund sentences:

He admitted taking the money. Avoid over-eating. Would you consider selling the property?

He detests writing letters.

She dreads getting old. Do you enjoy teaching? He narrowly escaped being run over.

Fancy meeting you!

Putting in a new window will involve cutting away part of the roof. He kept complaining. He didn 't want to risk getting wet.

If we buy plenty of food now it will save shopping later in the week. I can't understand his/him leaving his wife.

I couldn 't help laughing. It's no good/use arguing. Is there anything here worth buying?

262 Verbs + possessive adjective/pronoun object + gerund

A If the verb or verb + preposition is followed directly by the gerund, the gerund refers to the subject of the verb:

Tom insisted on reading the letter. (Tom read it.) But if we put a possessive adjective or pronoun before the gerund, the gerund refers to the person denoted by the possessive adjective /pronoun:

He insisted on ту/me reading it. (I had to read it.)

В Useful verbs and expressions which can take either construction are:

He disliked working late.

He disliked me/ту working late.

I object to paying twice for the same thing.

I object to his/him making private calls on this phone. He resented being passed over for promotion.

He resented my/me being promoted before him.

(For mind, see 263; for suggest and propose, see 289.)

С excuse, forgive, pardon and prevent are not followed directly by the gerund but take either possessive adjective/pronoun + gerund or pronoun + preposition + gerund:

Forgive ту/me ringing you up so early. Forgive me for ringing you up so early.

You can't prevent his/him spending his own money.

You can't prevent him from spending his own money. appreciate usually requires a possessive adjective or passive gerund:

/ appreciate your giving me so much of your time. I appreciate being given this opportunity.

D Possessive adjective and pronoun object compared

In formal English the possessive adjective is used with the gerund. But in informal English we very often use the pronoun. The student therefore has a choice of forms, but is recommended to use the pronoun.

With stop meaning 'prevent' the pronoun is more usual than the possessive adjective:

/ can't stop him writing to the papers.

E Nouns with gerunds

In very formal English the possessive case is used:

/ do not remember my mother's complaining about it. But it is much more usual to omit the 's:

/ don't remember my mother complaining.

263 The verb mind

A This verb is used chiefly in the interrogative and negative: Would you mind waiting a moment? I don't mind walking.

В It can be followed directly by a gerund, or by a noun/pronoun or possessive adjective + gerund:

/ don't mind living here. (I live here and don't object to it.)

/ don't mind his/him living here. (He lives here and I don't object to this./I don't object to his/him living here.)

He didn't mind leaving home. (He left home quite happily.)

He didn't mind Ann leaving home. (Ann left home and he was quite happy about it. See 262 E for case of noun.)

С would you mind? is one of the most usual ways of making a request: Would you mind not smoking?

(Please don't smoke.) Would you mind moving your car? (Please move it.) Note the change of meaning when a possessive adjective precedes the gerund:

Would you mind my moving your car? =

Would you object if I moved your car? (This is not a request but a polite query.)

Do you mind if I move it? is a possible alternative to Would you mind my moving it? but Do you mind my moving it? may mean that the action has already started.

D mind can never be followed by an infinitive.

E The personal pronoun object can be used with gerunds instead of a possessive adjective (see 262 D).

264 The perfect gerund (having worked, having spoken etc.)

This can be used instead of the present form of the gerund (working, speaking etc.) when we are referring to a past action:

He was accused of deserting his ship or

He was accused of having deserted his ship. The perfect gerund is fairly usual after deny:

He denied having been there. Otherwise the present form is much the more usual.

265 The passive gerund

Present: being written Perfect: having been written

He was punished by being sent to bed without any supper. I remember being taken to Paris as a small child.

The safe showed no signs of having been touched.

25 Infinitive and gerund constructions

266 Verbs which may take either infinitive or gerund

advise (see 267) need (267)

agree (269) permit (267)

allow (267) prefer (295)

begin (267) propose (269)

can/could bear (267) recommend (267)

cease (267) regret (268)

continue (267) remember (268)

forget (268) require (267)

hate (295) start (267)

intend (267) stop (270 B)

like (295) try (270 C)

love (295) used to (270 D)

mean (269) want (267)

Note also be ashamed (of)/afraid (of)fsorry (for), 271; care (for), 294, 295; go on, 270.

267 Verbs taking infinitive or gerund without change of meaning A begin, start, continue, cease

В can't bear

С intend

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