This blog post from Alison Varela discusses infinitives and infinitive phrases. It provides examples of infinitives like "to sleep" and "to wash" and explains that an infinitive phrase contains an infinitive plus other words, like "to help the poor people of the world." The post lists verbs that are commonly followed by infinitives rather than gerunds and provides additional resources on infinitives and gerunds. It notes that infinitives and gerunds can sometimes be used interchangeably without changing meaning.

1. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CHIMBORAZO
BLOG OF GRAMMAR VI
ALISON VARELA
June 10th , 2014
Infinitives
To help the poor people of the world is a noble goal.
In the above sentence, which words form the infinitive? To help. An infinitive
is the base form of a verb with to. Here are some more infinitives:
To sleep
To wash
To love
An infinitive phrase is a group of words with an infinitive (it is NOT the whole
sentence). Again, looking at the above example, what is the infinitive
phrase? To help the poor people of the world.
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2. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CHIMBORAZO
BLOG OF GRAMMAR VI
ALISON VARELA
exercises and activities to help reinforce
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Infinitives and infinitive phrases can be both subjects and objects in
sentences. Take a look at these examples:
SUBJECT
To study hard will increase your chances
of getting into college.
OBJECT Kathy wants to study with her friends.
There are some verbs that are followed only by infinitives. For example,
Hesitate
She didn’t hesitate to tell the boss that
some employees were stealing office
supplies.
Offer
The Martin Family offered to watch their
neighbor’s dog for the whole week.
Promise
The school promised to help me find an
apartment.
Want
We want to visit all of the historic sites
in Tehran.
These words are rarely followed by gerunds (nouns that look like -ing ending
verbs).
For a list of verbs that are followed by
infinitives, click here.
For a list of adjectives followed by
infinitives, click here.
For a list of verbs followed by infinitives +

3. UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE CHIMBORAZO
BLOG OF GRAMMAR VI
ALISON VARELA
object, click here.
For a list of verbs that are followed by
gerunds, click here.
Students are often confused about this. When should I use infinitives? When
should I use gerunds? There are some situations when BOTH an infinitive and
gerund can be used with no change in meaning. For example,
The children like to go to the
zoo.
The children like going to the
zoo.
These two sentences have the same meaning.
For some other verbs, there is a difference in meaning:
Example Meaning
GERUND
Louise
stoppedsmoking.
She doesn’t
smoke
anymore.
INFINITIVE
Louise
stopped to
smoke.
She stopped
doing an
activity
because she
wanted to
smoke.
So, now you may want to ask, “What’s the difference between infinitives and
gerunds?” That’s a good question. We are glad you asked!
Though there are always exceptions to the following, here are two suggestions
that will help you distinguish the difference between infinitives and gerunds:
http://www.myenglishteacher.net/infinitives.html