Gerunds vs Infinitives at a glance
I enjoy pair-programming.
Read the rule, inspect the example, then check yourself.
Overview
A gerund is the -ing form used as a noun (debugging is hard). A to-infinitive is the to + base form (to debug). After many verbs only one of these is correct, and after some verbs the two have different meanings.
Three big families of verbs
Verb + gerund only: enjoy, finish, avoid, suggest, mind, keep, recommend, consider, deny, postpone, miss, practise.
Verb + to-infinitive only: want, need, decide, plan, hope, agree, refuse, manage, learn, expect, promise.
Verb + either (often with meaning shift): remember, forget, stop, try, regret, mean, go on, like, love.
- I enjoy pair-programming.
- I want to ship it today.
- I stopped to refactor. (paused in order to refactor) / I stopped refactoring. (gave up the activity)
After prepositions, always gerund
Any verb that follows a preposition takes the -ing form: good at debugging, interested in learning, before deploying, after writing tests.
- I'm good at debugging race conditions.
- We always run tests before deploying.
- Thanks for reviewing the PR.
Main Rules
When the meaning shifts, the shift is consistent.
remember / forget
remember/forget + gerund = recall/forget that the event happened (past).
remember/forget + to-infinitive = recall/forget that you need to do it (future obligation).
- I remember closing that ticket. (it definitely happened)
- I remembered to close the ticket. (I did the task on time)
- I forgot to merge the PR. (didn't do it)
- I'll never forget shipping that release. (the experience itself)
stop
stop + gerund = give up the activity.
stop + to-infinitive = pause in order to do something else.
- I stopped writing docs at 6pm. (I gave it up)
- I stopped to write a quick note. (I paused so I could write it)
try
try + gerund = experiment with a method.
try + to-infinitive = make an effort, but it may fail.
- Try restarting the service. (this is the method to try)
- I tried to restart the service, but it kept crashing. (effort, no result)
mean
mean + gerund = involve / require (consequence).
mean + to-infinitive = intend to do something.
- Shipping on Friday means working over the weekend if things break.
- I meant to ping you, but the day disappeared.
Patterns
Quick reference for the most common verbs at work.
Gerund vs infinitive — common verbs
| Verb | Pattern | Example |
|---|---|---|
| want | to-infinitive | I want to merge this today. |
| need | to-infinitive | We need to upgrade Node. |
| plan | to-infinitive | We plan to ship next sprint. |
| decide | to-infinitive | They decided to use PostgreSQL. |
| enjoy | gerund | I enjoy refactoring. |
| finish | gerund | I finished writing the tests. |
| avoid | gerund | Avoid pushing to main directly. |
| suggest | gerund | I suggest using a feature flag. |
| recommend | gerund | I recommend reading the RFC first. |
| stop | either (meaning shift) | I stopped to think. / I stopped thinking. |
| remember | either (meaning shift) | I remembered to deploy. / I remember deploying. |
| try | either (meaning shift) | Try restarting. / I tried to restart. |
Examples
Real engineering contexts where the choice matters.
I'm interested in learning Rust.
After preposition in, always gerund.
We decided to switch to TypeScript.
decide + to-infinitive — a one-time choice.
Avoid mixing async and sync code in the same function.
avoid + gerund — talking about a behaviour to refuse, not a single act.
I keep getting the same flaky-test error.
keep + gerund = repeated occurrence.
I suggest splitting the PR into two.
suggest + gerund (or suggest + that-clause, but never suggest + to-infinitive).
Common Mistakes
Russian uses the infinitive in most of these places. That habit produces the typical errors below.
I enjoy to debug.
I enjoy debugging.
enjoy never takes the to-infinitive. Always gerund.
I suggest to use a feature flag.
I suggest using a feature flag.
suggest + gerund (or that-clause). Common calque from Russian "я предлагаю сделать".
I avoided to push to main.
I avoided pushing to main.
avoid + gerund.
I look forward to work with you.
I look forward to working with you.
look forward TO is a phrasal verb where to is a preposition — so a gerund follows.
I'm good at solve merge conflicts.
I'm good at solving merge conflicts.
After at (preposition), always gerund.