Other Uses of Gerunds and Infinitives

Review of Gerunds
Remember that a gerund is verb + ing like hiking or traveling. A gerund can be used as a
subject in a sentence:

Hiking is a lot of fun.

A gerund can also be used as an object in a sentence:

Jessica and Allison enjoy traveling.

Other Uses of Gerunds

Use #1: After Prepositions and Phrasal Verbs
Gerunds are often used after prepositions:

Allison is very good at writing.

Gerunds are also often used after phrasal verbs:

After we arrived, we went out sightseeing.

Use #2: Explaining How

Gerunds are often used to explain how.
To explain how we do something, we use by + gerund:

A. I relax by reading books or watching movies.

B. I learned English by taking a class.

In Sentence A, how do I relax? I read books and watch movies. In Sentence B, how did I learn
English? I took a class.
Review of Infinitives
An infinitive is to + verb like to read or to fly. An infinitive is usually used as an object in a
sentence:

• I love to read.
• Vincent prefers to fly.

Other Uses of Infinitives

Use #1: After Adjectives
Infinitives are often used after adjectives:

• English grammar is difficult to learn.

• The Rocky Mountains are beautiful to visit.

Use #2: To Explain Why

Infinitives are often used to explain why. The infinitive shows the reason or purpose for doing
something:

A. She saved money to buy a house.

B. They went to Colorado to ski.

In Sentence A, she saved money because she wanted to buy a house. In Sentence B, they
went to Colorado because they wanted to ski.