That is essential

This sentence was in a paper. I marked it wrong and labeled it as a run on.

I like to waterski that is fun.

In the above sentence, that is a demonstrative pronoun. As a demonstrative pronoun, that can refer to a sentence or a noun. As a relative pronoun, that would refer only to the infinitive to water ski. However, in the run-on sentence, that would not work because that is fun is nonessential information and should have a comma in front of it. That can not be used in a nonessential clause.

But if I make them into two sentences, the two simple sentences are good.

I like to water ski. That is fun.

The clause, that is fun, can not serve as a nonessential adjective clause in the sentence above. Indeed, using it that way results in a run on.

If we make the sentence into a nonessential clause, it is acceptable.

I like to waterski, which is fun.

This is one case where the difference between essential and non essential clauses is important.

I would probably use the second sentence with the nonessential clause unless I want to emphasize fun more than water skiing.

Make and Subject Verb Agreement

In class, we were working on subject verb agreement when we came across a sentence like

She makes him work harder.

From the sentence we can see that makes agrees with the pronoun she (3^rd person singular). The question was what about the verb work? We do not have to worry about subject verb agreement with the verb after make.

Make is one of three verbs called causative verbs, that act in this way. These other verbs are have and let.

She makes her try. (causes her to try)
She has her fix her hair. (causes her to fix her hair)
He lets her drive his car. (allows her to drive his car)

The structure is Subject + Verb + Object + Verb + (Adverb or Adjective or Noun Phrase or Clause).

I think that the second verb is actually an infinitive without the to for two reasons. When we restate the sentence in another way as in causes or lets her, we have to use an infinitive form as in to try, to fix, to drive. Another reason it seems to be an infinitive is that the other causative verbs are followed by infinitives.

She gets him to work for her.
She allows him to return late.
She convinces him to stay home.

A list of causative verbs of this second type is: let, help, allow, have, require, allow, motivate, get, make, convince, hire, assist, encourage, permit, employ, force. The list comes from The Guide to Grammar and Writing.

The structure for these verbs differs only in the use of the preposition to.
Subject + Verb + Object + to + Verb + (Adverb or Adjective or Noun Phrase or Clause).

Subject-Verb Agreement (3)

I recently saw a general rule for subject-verb agreement. The rule is put the s with the noun when it is plural, with the verb when the noun is singular except with I.

Examples:

The artist draws well with charcoal. (singular subject)
The artists draw well with charcoal. (plural subject)

This is a good rule for nouns that are regular in forming plurals. It also covers the countable nouns because they do not have a plural form so they will have an s on the verb.

Examples:

The rice is ready so we can eat.
Activity is what you need.

Collective nouns (class, government, family, jury, committee, group, couple, or team) are usually singular.

The class begins at noon.
Government is a necessity though sometimes not desirable.

Note that on occasion when the group is thought of as individuals, and the writer wants to emphasize disagreement or differences, then the noun can be used as a plural.

The family are teachers and government employees.
The committee feel they can not make a decision at this time.

There are several nouns that form their plurals differently. These can be found here. These nouns in the plural form will not be followed by a verb with the s.

Children play in the park until dark.
The women sing well together.

So the rule works well with nouns that form regular plurals. It also works well with most pronouns except the pronoun I mentioned above. I is singular but does not require an s on verbs.

A group of pronouns also can cause problems. These are the indefinite pronouns, which include some pronouns that can be either singular or plural depending on the noun they refer to. By that I mean that if the noun is countable, the indefinite pronoun can be plural. These include the pronouns (all, any, most, none, and some).

The milk is fresh. All is ready for drinking right now.
The artists are present. All are ready to show their work.

This group of pronouns includes some pronouns that are plural (both, several, many, others, more).

Both boys are tired.
Several girls have come to the game.
Others are absent.
Some people ride bicycles. More drive cars.

Also, there are several words that look plural but are singular (news, politics, economics, civics, measles, mumps, physics, statistics, and mathematics.)

At the Purdue OWL site, they point out that dollars causes some difficulties. When dollars follows a number, in other words, there is an amount of money, the verb is singular.

Five dollars is enough to pay for the ring.

But when dollars is used alone to refer to the money, it is plural.

Dollars are needed to buy that.

Words like trousers, scissors, tweezers, shears, pants, and shorts are plural.

In summary, a simple rule like put the s with the noun when it is plural, with the verb when the noun is singular except with I looks good, but in English (as usual) there are some exceptions to keep in mind.

Subject-Verb Agreement (2)

Another problem that can arise in identifying subjects is when the subject is separated from the verb by phrases or clauses.

The women who drove the trucks are now asleep in the hotel.

Women is the subject of are, but they (the women) are also the subject of drove because the relative pronoun who refers to women. Consequently, both drove and are have to agree with the subject, women.

Textbooks often discuss the fact that many words can be used between the subject and the verb as we saw above with the relative clause and the prepositional phrases.

Driving to Miami from Gainesville takes several hours.

The women who drove the trucks are now asleep in the hotel.

In the first case, the prepositional phrases come between the subject and the verb. In the second case, the relative clause (adjective clause) comes between the subject and the verb.

In each case, we can examine the sentence, locate the verb and look for the subject of the verb. In the first case, only driving is left as a possible subject after we remove the prepositional phrases.

Driving ... takes several hours.

This sentence is not very informative, but it is stripped down to subject and verb phrase to illustrate my point. In the other sentence, we can do the same thing.

The women who drove the trucks are now asleep in the hotel.

If we remove the adjective clause, we have a simpler sentence:

The women are now asleep in the hotel.

Another way to approach this problem of identifying the subject is to identify the verbs and identify the subjects of the verbs.

The women who drove the trucks are now asleep in the hotel.

Drove is our first verb. The relative pronoun who doesn’t tell us very much. With relative pronouns, we should identify the reference for the pronoun. So who is the subject, and who refers back to women. The verb has to agree with the subject, women.

Are is our second verb. Now we need to work backward. First, we eliminate the adjective clause. That leaves us with women as the only noun in front of the verb and thus the subject.

To summarize, we can approach the problem of identifying the subject and verb by beginning with the subject or by beginning with the verb. Identifying the subject and the verb will help us make our decisions about subject-verb agreement.

Subject-Verb Agreement

In working on subject-verb agreement, we begin by identifying the subject and the verb. Looks easy when I write it, but it isn’t always so easy in practice.

Subjects are usually nouns or pronouns.

Tom dives into the pool with no fear.

He dives from the diving board.

The car sits in the driveway.

In these cases, the subject is relatively easy to find. It is close to the verb and is a noun or a pronoun.

Now there are cases where a noun comes in front of the verb but it is not the subject.

In the driveway sits my new car.

In this example driveway is a noun, but driveway is the object of the preposition in. When a noun follows a preposition it can not be the subject of a sentence. The phrase, In the driveway, is a prepositional phrase showing location. In this sentence, the subject, car, follows the verb.

Gerunds and infinitives are two groups that can function as subjects and can be difficult to identify. A gerund is an –ing form of a word that functions as a noun.

Swimming is good exercise.

Driving to Miami from Gainesville takes several hours

In these two sentences swimming and driving are the subjects. The first one seems a little more obvious than the second one. It looks like the sentence.

Milk is a nutritious drink.

Driving though at first may not seem quite as obvious but remember that a noun in a prepositional phrase can not be a subject. Since to Miami and from Gainesville are both prepositional phrases, neither Miami or Gainesville can be subjects in this sentence.

Infinitives function as nouns also. Infinitives are to and the simple present form of the verb. (Infinitives as subjects are not very common in writing because they may seem awkward.)

To succeed takes work.

The subject of takes is to succeed.

Both infinitives and gerunds are singular and in the third person, so they require the singular verb form, that is, the addition of s to the verb.

To summarize, nouns, pronouns, gerunds, and infinitives can all serve as subjects. Only nouns and pronouns can be either singular and plural.

Too and Very

Too and very are intensifiers that express different ideas about the words they modify.

They have too many children. (They can not provide for all of the children.)

They have very many children. (They have a large number of children.)

Too is used to express the idea of more than is needed, wanted, or desirable.

He is too loud.

She is too tired.

Very expresses the idea of a large amount or a high degree. Very is often used for emphasis.

He has very many CDs.

She earned very good grades.

She drives very fast.

Damage/Harm/Injure

Sometimes the word damage is misused when the writer should use either harm, injure, or hurt.


Damage has several meanings that include the idea of changing something for the worse, changing the integrity or value of something, doing something legally wrong to someone, or the cost of something.

My car was damaged in the wreck. (changing something for the worse)

She damaged her knee in the game.(changing the integrity of something)

Her lies damaged his reputation. (to affect negatively)

The damage comes to $498. (This is an idiomatic use and not usually used in formal writing).

Harm shares two senses with damage but has one that differs which is physical injury.

Shared

She harmed her knee in the game. (changing the integrity of something)

Her lies harmed his reputation. (to affect negatively)

Differs

The broken glass harmed his foot. (physical injury)

Injure includes two senses that are similar to damage and harm, that is to affect negatively but includes one meaning it shares with harm.

Shared

She injured her knee in the game. (changing the integrity of something)

Her lies injured his reputation. (to affect negatively).

Shares only with harm

The broken glass injured his foot. (wound)

The senses come from WordNet.com

From these examples, it looks like damage has several meanings which makes it a good word to use with something that is negative and causes some type of change to something. However, when we write about a physical wound or a physical injury to a person’s body, then harm, injure, or hurt work better.

Damage does not refer to the wound, but it does describe something that is more long term and usually means an injury or hurt that results in a change in the body part or parts.

So I can injure my knee in a game. This injury becomes damage when my knee is negatively affected so that it causes pain or doesn’t work as well after the injury occurred.

Adverbs of Frequency

There are several adverbs that tell the reader or listener how frequent an action occurs.

These are listed from 100% to 0% in frequency with always indicating 100% frequency and never indicated 0% frequency.

Adverbs of Frequency list

always

often

frequently

usually

normally

sometimes

occasionally

seldom

rarely

never

In constructing a sentence with these adverbs, we commonly use the adverb before the verb.

I always make a plan before I travel.

She frequently stops to adjust her backpack.

Note: There are some collocations (word partnerships) which allow the adverb to follow the verb. For example, I can write

She stops frequently to adjust her backpack.

But this does not work with the verb make or many other verbs, so the sentence

*I make always a plan before I travel.

is not a good sentence.

When we use the present perfect, the adverb is put between the have/has auxiliary and the main verb which is a past participle.

I have never seen such a mess before in my life.

He has occasionally forgotten to bring his textbook.

In writing, the adverb can be put at the beginning of the sentence for emphasis. It is not commonly done, so when it is done, it makes a strong statement.

Frequently she stops to adjust her backpack.

Never have I seen such a mess.

Notice that with the present perfect, the auxiliary verb moves in front of the noun.

To repeat, putting the adverb first is not commonly done, so use it rarely if at all. I don't think I have used it in my own writing.

Instead of for example

There are several ways to write and not use for example or for instance to introduce an example. Here are two sentence. The first sentence introduces a subtopic or support. The second sentence provides the specifics through use of example.

The bank has several helpful services. For example, it provides drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, has an ATM machine for quick withdrawal or deposits when the bank is closed, and maintains a website where up-to-date information about a person's account is available.

Use in particular or specifically.

The bank has several helpful services. In particular, it provides drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, has an ATM machine for making quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed, and maintains a website where up-to-date information about a person's account is available.

The bank has several helpful services; in particular, it provides drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, has an ATM machine for making quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed, and maintains a website where up-to-date information about a person's account is available.

The bank has several helpful services. Specifically, it provides drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, has an ATM machine for making quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed, and maintains a website where up-to-date information about a person's account is available.

The bank has several helpful services; specifically, it provides drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, has an ATM machine for making quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed, and maintains a website where up-to-date information about a person's account is available.

Use such as or like.

The bank has several helpful services such as providing drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, an ATM machine for making quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed, and a website where up-to-date information about a person's account is available.

The bank has several helpful services like providing drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, an ATM machine for making quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed, and a website where up-to-date information about a person's account is available.

Begin with the examples.

My bank provides drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, has an ATM machine for making quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed, and maintains a website where up-to-date information about a person's account is available which are several helpful services for its customers.


Put the supports in a noun clause at the beginning of the sentence

Providing drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, an ATM machine for quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed, and a website with up-to-date information about a person’s account are several helpful services a bank provides for its customers.

Use the supports as direct objects of the subject (topic or area).

The bank provides drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money and an ATM machine for making quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed along with a website where up-to-date information about a person’s account is available which are several helpful services for its customers.



Also there are several ways to make variations on for example/for instance such as by changing the word before the noun.

An example / an instance
Some examples / some instances
A few examples / a few instances
Several examples / several instances

One of

When we use one of, the object of the prepositions is a group that the one belongs to.

One of the players is my brother.

One of the team is my brother.

One remains the subject; thus, subject-verb agreement requires the subject to have an –s for the third person singular present tense.

One of the players has the ball.

One of the swimmers races for our team.

The group that the one belongs to must be a countable noun or a unit which has countable members such as a dance troupe, a team, an organization, or a class. The countable group such as players or students is plural; however, the unit such as team or troupe is singular.

In the sentence

One of the greatest players is Barry Bonds.

Players is plural even with the use of the superlative, greatest. If we want to say that Barry Bonds is the greatest player, we would not use one.

Barry Bonds is the greatest player. (No other player is as great as Barry Bonds.)

Barry Bonds is one of the greatest players. (Barry Bonds belongs to the group of greatest players.)

When we have a uncountable noun in this construction, we have to use the countable member or quantity to use this construction.

One of the pieces of luggage is lost.

One of the grains of rice is red.

One of my homework assignments is finished.

Building a paragraph with Given-New

As we build a paragraph, we keep in mind this given new contract in our attempt to make our writing clear to our reader. We do this in several ways.

The primary way we do this is by making clear the connection between the controlling idea or statement and each support. This is done through the transitions between supports. Each transition can be used to point back to the controlling idea. It can be done through the ways we repeat the same information. For example, if I am writing about astronomers, I can repeat astronomers in the following seven ways:

Restated Given Information ==>Form of Restatement

astronomers ==>repeated
scientists ==> category or more general
star gazers ==> synonym (informal)
people who study the stars ==> definition
they ==> pronoun
these/ those scientists ==> demonstrative with repeated word
astronomical ==> different part of speech

Now these seven ways work better with topics than with controlling ideas which are more adjectival. So lets look at how they might work with adjectives. Here we will use the adjective important to show seven forms of restatement.

Restated Given Information Form of Restatement

important ==> repeated
significant ==> synonym
importantly, importance ==> different part of speech
more important(ly) ==> comparative
most important(ly) ==> superlative
equally, not as, ==> comparison/contrast
unimportant ==> antonym

How this can work is shown in this paragraph.

Kansas(t) is probably one of the most boring states in the United States, but I dearly love(ci) that state. Because it (pronoun [t]) is the state where I was born and grew up in, I can only think of how much it means to me (ci [explanation]) as the location of my family's history, my cousins and their children, and one of my brothers. Furthermore, the part of the Jayhawk state (synonym [t]) has gentle rolling hills of the countryside that make me yearn (synonym [ci]) to return there (pronoun [t]) when I feel the frustration of living with traffic and people rushing everywhere. Most of all, I miss the gentle knowledge of my father in evening talks on the front porch as he greeted people out for walks, for he discussed how people should live and do with the insights that I still treasure (synonym [ci]). Kansas (repeated [t]) probably still is boring though I haven't been there in a long time, but it remains in the center of my heart (definition [ci]) because it was the place where I learned some key lessons for my life's journey.

Given-New (2)

The given-new relationship in communication is like a contract. When someone speaks to me or writes something I will read, I expect that person to begin with what I know. In other words, the contract says speakers and writers begin with something the audience knows before introducing something the audience might not know.

To give an example. If I meet someone and the first thing that person says is “She was really excited last night,” I am lost if I do not know who she is or that she was excited. My first question would be who? In other words, what is the given I am supposed to know?

Given-new patterns can vary from paragraph to paragraph. Three common patterns are:

A=>B=>C

In this pattern the new information is introduced by connecting to the given information. Then the new information becomes given information to introduce new information.

A dog is a very good pet. This pet will meet you affectionately at the door everyday. This affection will not be lost if you fail a test or have a bad day.

Another pattern is

A => B
A => C
A => D

This pattern connects to the same given information to introduce different kinds of new information. For example, in this paragraph dog is the repeated given information.

A dog makes a very good pet. A dog will remain a true friend even when it is ignored. A dog will help you through times when a person feels sad or does not do well.

There are other patterns of development with the given new relation connection, but they are basically variations on these two.

Given-New

When a writer wants to communicate with someone, he or she begins with something the reader knows about. This is the topic since topics are usually somewhat general. The topic links the reader and the writer because there is a common place or idea to begin with. The writer then provides a statement or controlling idea which tells the reader what the writer wants to say about the topic.

Another way to look at this is that the topic is the given information and the statement is the knew information. The reader knows at least something about the topic; the reader does not know what the writer wants to say about the topic, so this information (the statement) is new information. From this point, the writer begins with given information and uses it to introduce new information.

This pattern of given and new information is common in writing and speaking because it enables the reader (or listener) to make a connection and prepare for something they don't know. In speaking, the new information usually gets more stress than the given information. In writing, the given information usually comes before the new information. Knowing this, we can understand how paragraphs and longer pieces of writing are constructed.

The topic sentence consists of the topic (given) and the statement (new). After the statement is introduced, it is given information. Thus writers use connections between the given information (the topic sentence) and the new information, the supports, to help the reader understand the piece of writing. In other words , the topic sentence provides the given information for the rest of the paragraph, and the supports provide the new information.

When we talk about the structure of supports as containing a connection (a so what?), an area, and details, we are saying that each support has a given (the so what?). This given helps the reader understand that each support is connected to the topic sentence. The connection can be made through connecting to the statement or the topic. The statement, however, limits the choices of supports because the supports must develop the statement. When I say that the supports must develop the statement, I mean that each support provides more information about the controlling idea (statement). To give an example, if my statement (controlling idea) is about the strengths of Santa Fe Community College, each support must be a strength of SFCC. Consequently, I can not choose a support that is weakness of SFCC and write a good paragraph.

In this example, strength becomes the given information for each support. This is why we restate in some way the statement in each support. This restatement helps the reader see the connection because the writer starts from the known (the given) before introducing the new (the area and supporting details).

This introduction is somewhat general and theoretical. I will try to explain the details more clearly in another post.

More on Linking Verbs

There are only three verbs that are always linking verbs: be, become, and seem.

• She is tired.
• He becomes angry when he doesn't get his way.
• She seems sleepy.

However, there are several verbs that can be linking verbs or transitive verbs. These verbs can be divided into two groups.

One group consists of current verbs. These verbs describe states and are sometimes called stative verbs.

They are : appear, be, feel, lie, look, remain, seem, smell, sound, stay, taste

The other group of linking verbs are resulting verbs. These verbs are: become, get, grow, fall, prove, run, turn.

As I wrote, except for three verbs (be, become, and seem), linking verbs can also be transitive. When they are linking verbs, they do not pass the action from the subject to the verb. When they are transitive verbs, the subject passes the action to the object.

Examples:

He got angry. (Linking)
He got a job. (Transitive)

He feels sick. (Linking)
He feels the child's throat. (Transitive)

She sounds nice. (Linking)
She smells the flower. (Transitive)

For more information look at Grammar Bytes and Katrien Vanassche's site.

Linking Verbs

There are basically two types of verbs: action verbs and linking verbs. I want to discuss linking verbs now. A linking verb makes a connection between the subject and some information about the subject. The information identifies or describes the subject.

Examples:

• The girl is tall. (describes)
• The girl is a student. (identifies)
• The girl is a good student. (identifies)

When describing, we tend to use adjectives because adjectives work very well in describing by making the noun more specific through giving more information about the noun.

Identification actually works in a similar way because we are giving more information about the noun, and the information helps us identify the noun and separate it from other similar nouns. Another way to describe it is that the subject is renamed by the noun that follows the linking verb as in the girl = student.

But when we use linking verbs, we don't want to just write simple sentences like the example sentences above. We can make the sentences more interesting by adding information.

We can add more adjectives.
The girl is tall, blond haired, and soft-spoken.

We can add prepositional phrases.
The girl is a student at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, Florida.

We can add an adjective clause.
The girl is a good student, who gets As on most of her tests.

We can even use all of the information is one sentence.
The tall, blond-haired, and soft-spoken girl is a good student at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, Florida, who gets As on most of her tests.

These are just a few examples of how to expand a sentence using a linking verb.

Time and times

Time is one of the words in English that can be either countable or uncountable.

There is not enough time to finish.
He spends most of his time with her.
At the time of their arrest, they were drunk.

Versus

He kicked the ball several times
In colonial times, there were few printing presses.
She went to the movie four times.
These times are difficult.

What seems to be going on here is that when time refers to an abstract idea, it is uncountable. It is a general idea that can be broken down into countable units like hours, or minutes. Thus, this use of time is like money. Time is a large or abstract category.

But when times refers to a concrete action or period of time, it is countable. In this case, it is not broken down into smaller units.

He saw her several times last week.

Here it is countable because the times were separate units (each time he saw her) and countable. Unlike spending most of his time, in which case, the time could be broken down into smaller units such as hours or minutes.

Amount or Number; Fewer than or less than

Both of these pairs concern agreement with count or uncountable (also called noncount) nouns.

In English something that is uncountable is an amount. Money is one example. Yes, I know you can count dollars, pennies, and the government counts in millions and billions, but money itself is uncountable because it is a generalization. So we talk about amounts of money, such as a large amount of money.

Number is used with countable things. The number of coins in your pocket tells us how much money you have in your pocket. So money acts like luggage and homework as an uncountable. They describe a general category.

Uncountable: money, luggage, homework

Countable: coins, suitcases, assignments

Another thing to notice about amount and number is that they are often accompanied by the preposition of.

The amount of money you will need is $75.00.

The number of coins you will need is four.

Fewer (than) and (less) than also relate to countable and uncountable nouns. Despite the fact that grocery stores and discount stores have signs that say Less than 8 items in this aisle, the sign should read fewer than because if you can count them then the are fewer.

The less money I have, the more bills I seem to have.

I have fewer dollars for this week than last week.

Fewer and less are used in comparison, so they must agree with the nouns that are being compared.

I have less money than my wife.

I have fewer dollars than my wife.

Most and Mostly

The words came up in a discussion recently. They look so similar that it seems like they would follow the pattern of other adjectives and adverbs.

quick (adj.), quickly (adv.)

painful (adj.), painfully (adv.)

slow (adj.), slowly (adv.)

With these words, the adjectives have a meaning that is very similar to the adverb. Thus quick and quickly both mean in a rapid way. Painful and painfully both describe strong or severe pain while slow and slowly synonymously refer to doing something at a low speed.

Most and mostly don't follow that pattern. They are a little like another pair, hard and hardly.

Most is an adjective, but it usually is used with another adjective to show the superlative degree, that is, the highest or only one of something as in this sentence:

He is my most trusted friend.

This means that I trust no friend more than him.

Now when I change most to mostly, there is a change in meaning.

He is my mostly trusted friend.

Mostly here means that I usually trust him, but it also implies that he is not my most trusted friend because I can't trust him all of the time.

Most also behaves a little like an adverb because it is usually found with an adjective next to it. It modifies the adjective. But dictionaries classify it as an adjective. Also, most is usually preceded by the article, the, unless there is a possessive, which is even more definite than the article.

Hard and Hardly

When I was young, I would often hear one person trying to be a little funny asking another person,

Are you working hard or hardly working?

Hard and hardly mean the opposite, thus the use of or. Working hard means a person is doing the job to the best of his or her physical or mental powers. Hardly working means the person is doing as little as possible. This contrast is much stronger than most and mostly.

Of the other superlatives, least, worst, and best, there is no adverb (-ly) form, so they have nothing to be confused with like most and mostly.

Gerunds and Infinitives: Three Verbs with Meaning Changes

Some sources have a short list of verbs that can be followed by gerunds or infinitives, but the meanings differ. With some of the verbs like try, the difference in meaning is subtle and difficult to explain or even at times to see. However, three verbs that can be followed by either gerunds or infinitives have clear differences in meaning. These verbs are: forget, remember, and stop.

Stop

To show the difference, let's look at stop.

Gerund: I stopped smoking.

Infinitive: I stopped to smoke.

The first sentence has at least two different meanings. One is that I stopped smoking (cigarettes) and did something else. The second one is that I stopped my habit of smoking cigarettes. A third meaning could be that I have cooled down and no longer have smoke coming off of me. Another possible meaning might be applied to sports, in particular baseball, where a pitcher might be declaring that his fastball is no longer as fast as it was. In all of these meanings, the person speaking talks about something that happened in the past.

With the infinitive, the speaker (or writer) says that he or she stopped doing something (what is not stated here, but it could be). In other words, two actions are indicated first the action that is now finished and the second one that was begun – to smoke.

Now it is possible to write a sentence with stop that uses both a gerund and infinitive which might show this difference.

I stopped running to smoke.

One action now is in the past, running, while the second action has begun.

Remember and forget are related though opposite mental activities, but they differ in their meanings and use.

Remember

Infinitive: I remember to mail the letter. ( less likely to be used)

I remembered to mail the letter.

Gerund: I remember mailing the letter.

I remembered mailing the letter.(less likely to be used)

With the infinitive, I think we are more likely to use the infinitive with the past tense of remember because we mean that mailed the letter and we remembered to do it in the past. In other words both the remembering and mailing took place in the past perhaps in the order of remembering and then mailing. That is why we are unlikely to use the present tense of remember. I can think of one possible use of the present tense which is to describe someone's daily actions.

With the gerund, we are more likely to use the present tense with the gerund because the remembering is occurring in the present while the action, mailing the letter, occurred in the past. So we are not likely to use the past unless we are reporting the sequence of events to someone else.

Another way to look at remember and infinitives and gerunds is sequence.

Infinitive

remember then action

Gerund

action then remember

In using remember with gerunds and infinitives, one way to think about which one to use is to consider when the action happened. Did it happen before or after the remembering?

We can also use gerunds and infinitives together after remember.

I remember running to catch the bus.

Forget

Forget presents more of a yes and no meaning.

Infinitive: I forgot to pay the bill. (No, I did not pay the bill.)

Gerund: I forgot paying the bill. (Yes, I paid the bill.)

With forget, which feels more comfortable in the past tense, the meaning is determined by whether or not the action occurred or was done.

Gerund and Infinitives alone and in phrases

When I write about gerunds and infinitives, I usually use examples that contain one gerund or infinitive.

Examples:

Running is good exercise.
To run was my choice.

However, both gerunds and infinitives can be used with adverbs in prepositional phrases or as objects.

With adverbs:

Gerund: Running slowly is the best can do.
Infinitive: To run slowly will be easier for me.

With prepositional phrases:

Gerund: Running in a race is fun for many people.
Infinitive: To run in a race is better than to sit in front of the tv.

In the textbook, Grammar Sense 3, Susan Kesner Bland points out that although we can use an infinitive as a subject, it not common. Usually, the infinitive is replaced by it as the subject and the infinitive occurs later in the sentence.

Example:

It is easier for me to run slowly.

She further points out that only a few verbs are used after it.They are:

• appears


• be


• cost


• look


• pay


• seem


• take

Usually the infinitive is not used immediately after these verbs, but it can be done.