Foscari - Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Informatica e Statistica

1 'Could I speak to Mr Yo, please?' 'Yes of course, I (fetch him)
2 I'm afraid I can't come to the office dinner next week because I... (go on holiday)
3 We've finally made a decision about the product launch. We ... (go ahead May)
4 'We're running out of envelopes.' 'I (order more)
5 'The photocopier doesn't work.' 'OK.I (call technician)
6 He's resigned from the company and he ... (take job in New York)
C Underline the correct form on the basis of the comment in brackets below.
1 We will sell / are selling the company. (We've found a buyer.)
2 I will meet / am meeting Jo at the airport. (Jo knows about this arrangement.)
3 I will help / am helping her. (I've just decided.)
4 Shares in BMX will / are going to fall. (I have some inside information.)
5 Jo is going to teach / is teaching me Chinese. (Our lessons have already begun.)
5 The gerund and the infinitive after verbs
There are some verbs which are always followed by the gerund or ing form, and others which are
followed by the infinitive with to.
There are some rules that can help you work out these verb patterns.
1 The gerund
We use the ing form:
a after verbs and expressions of emotional attitude towards something, e.g like, love, dislike,
enjoy, hate, stand, mind.
Working Americans enjoy spending time with their families.
b after certain other verbs, e.g. risk, avoid, spend time.
I don't want to risk losing their custom.
c when the activity is the subject or object of a sentence.
Using a computer all day can be bad far your back.
We don't encourage drinking on the premises.
d after verbs that express ideas or advice, e.g. recommend, propose, suggest.
Health experts recommend taking much longer lunch breaks.
(Also The experts recommend that we take longer breaks.)
e We also use the gerund immediately after prepositions e.g. before, after, since, by, about,
on, for, in, to.
An MP3 is generally used for listening to music. Before using it you need to attach the
headphones.
I look forward to hearing from you.
2 The infinitive
We use the infinitive:
a after verbs that focus on a purpose or objective e.g. would like, want, plan, promise, decide,
hope. We would like to inform you that we have decided to accept your proposal
b after verbs that tell someone what they can do or what we want them to do, e.g. allow, ask,
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