2nd Year Baccalaureate Grammar “Infinitive or Gerund” Lesson Explained

Infinitives (English):

Use “to” followed by the base verb (eat, run).
They show the goal or future action.
- Example: I want to eat a pizza. (Eating is the goal.)

Infinitives (Arabic – المصدر الصريح):

يتكون من كلمة “أن” يليها الفعل الأساسي (مثل “يأكل” أو “يركض”).
وهو يعمل كفعل مستقبلي أو كهدف لشيء آخر.
- مثال: أريد أن آكل بيتزا. (الأكل هو هدف الرغبة.)

Gerunds (English):

Formed by adding “-ing” to the base verb (eating, running).
They act like nouns, representing the action itself.
- Example: Running is good exercise. (Running is the subject.)

Gerunds (Arabic – المصدر المؤول):

يتكون هذا المساعد بإضافة “-ing” إلى الفعل الأساسي (مثل “أكل” أو “ركض”).
وهو يعمل كاسم! يمثل الفعل نفسه.
- مثال: المشي رياضة جيدة. (المشي هو الموضوع، مثل الشيء.)

Tips to Remember:

Main action? Use the infinitive with “to” (English) or “أن” (Arabic).
Describing the purpose? Use the gerund with “-ing” (English) or the المصدر المؤول (Arabic).

Some verbs can work with both, but the meaning changes slightly:

Stop (English): “I stopped working.” (Stopped completely) vs. “I stopped to talk to him.” (Stopped for a purpose)
توقف (Arabic): “توقفت عن العمل.” (توقف تمامًا) مقابل “توقفت لأتحدث معه.” (توقف لغرض ما)

Extra Tips:

Gerunds can follow prepositions (in, on, at) in English.
المصدر المؤول (Arabic) can also be preceded by prepositions.
- Example (English): I’m interested in learning French.
- مثال (Arabic): أنا مهتم بتعلم اللغة الفرنسية.
Infinitives in English can follow some adjectives (happy, difficult).
المصدر الصريح (Arabic) can also follow some adjectives.
- Example (English): It’s easy to understand.
- مثال (Arabic): من السهل فهمها.

Verbs Followed by Gerund (-ing):

Enjoying activities: admit, adore, appreciate, avoid, consider, delay, detest, dislike, enjoy, fancy, finish, forgive, imagine, involve, keep (on doing), mind, miss, neglect, postpone, practice, prevent, quit, relish, resist, risk, start, stop (meaning “to continue”), stink (of doing something), tolerate, undergo.

Verbs Followed by Infinitive with “to”:

Expressing desire or plan: agree, aim, appear, arrange, ask, attempt, beg, choose, consent, dare, decide, demand, deserve, determine, dream of, expect, fail, forget, guarantee, hesitate, hope, hurry, incline, learn, manage, mean, offer, plan, prepare, pretend, promise, prove, refuse, seem, struggle, swear, tend, threaten, volunteer, wait, want, wish, yearn.

Verbs Followed by Infinitive without “to”:

Making someone do something: help, have (got), let, make. (These verbs typically follow a structure of Verb + Noun + Infinitive without “to”)

Verbs Followed by Both Infinitive and Gerund (with slight meaning difference):

Can have either infinitive or gerund with a slight difference in meaning: begin, can’t bear, can’t stand, continue, hate, intend, like, love, prefer, propose, start.

Examples (Showing the difference):

Begin: “We began working on the project.” (Started working) vs. “We began to work on the project.” (Planned to work)
Like: “I like cooking.” (Enjoy the concept) vs. “I like to cook.” (Enjoy the activity)

Now, let’s do this exercise: