Gerund (V-ing) vs. Infinitive (To V) – English Grammar Exercises for B1

1  (B) listening

• Why it is correct (The Key): The verb “enjoy” must be followed by a gerund (V-ing) when expressing a hobby or preference.
• Error Analysis: (C) “To listen” is a Common Mistake; learners often default to the infinitive after verbs. (D) “Listen” is a Structural Error (two base verbs cannot be placed next to each other). (A) “Hearing” is a Meaning Trap; you “hear” sounds accidentally, but you purposefully “listen” to music.

2  (D) Doing

• Why it is correct (The Key): To make an activity the subject of a sentence, we use the gerund form.
• Error Analysis: (A) “Do” is a Common Mistake; a base verb cannot be the subject. (C) “To doing” is a Structural Error (mixing infinitive ‘to’ and gerund). (B) “Playing” is a Meaning/Collocation Trap; in English, you “do” yoga, you don’t “play” it.

3  (C) taking

• Why it is correct (The Key): The verb “fancy” (meaning to want or desire something) is always followed by a gerund.
• Error Analysis: (A) “To take” is a Common Mistake. (B) “Take” is a Structural Error. (D) “Making” is a Meaning/Collocation Trap; you “take a walk,” you do not “make a walk.”

4  (B) being

• Why it is correct (The Key): The phrase “can’t stand” (meaning to strongly dislike) takes a gerund when referring to general experiences.
• Error Analysis: (A) “To be” is a Common Mistake. (D) “Be” is a Structural Error. (C) “To being” is a Structural Error (combining ‘to’ with ‘being’ without prepositional justification).

5  (D) cleaning

• Why it is correct (The Key): The expression “don’t mind” is followed by a gerund.
• Error Analysis: (C) “To clean” is a Common Mistake. (A) “Clean” is a Structural Error. (B) “Clearing” is a Meaning Trap; “clearing” the house means emptying it of people or furniture, whereas “cleaning” means tidying up.

6  (C) doing

• Why it is correct (The Key): The phrase “feel like” (meaning to have the desire to do something) must be followed by a gerund.
• Error Analysis: (A) “To do” is a Common Mistake. (D) “Do” is a Structural Error. (B) “Making” is a Meaning Trap; the correct collocation is “doing nothing,” not “making nothing.”

7  (D) painting

• Why it is correct (The Key): The pattern “spend time + V-ing” requires a gerund to show what the time was used for.
• Error Analysis: (B) “To paint” is a Common Mistake (it looks like an infinitive of purpose, but it breaks the ‘spend time’ rule). (C) “Paint” is a Structural Error. (A) “Drawing” is a Meaning Trap; watercolors are used for painting, not drawing.

8  (B) Not thinking

• Why it is correct (The Key): To make a gerund subject negative, simply place “not” before the V-ing.
• Error Analysis: (A) “Don’t think” is a Common Mistake (using an imperative as a subject). (D) “Not to think” is a Structural Error in this context. (C) “Forgetting” is a Meaning Trap; forgetting is accidental, whereas “not thinking” is a deliberate, relaxing choice.

9  (C) watching

• Why it is correct (The Key): The verb “avoid” must be followed by a gerund.
• Error Analysis: (D) “To watch” is a Common Mistake. (B) “Watch” is a Structural Error. (A) “Looking” is a Meaning Trap; you “watch” the news, you don’t “look” the news.

10  (A) baking

• Why it is correct (The Key): Prepositions (like “in”) are always followed by a gerund (V-ing), not an infinitive or base verb.
• Error Analysis: (C) “To bake” is a Common Mistake (ignoring the preposition rule). (D) “Bake” is a Structural Error. (B) “To baking” is a Structural Error (adding ‘to’ after ‘in’ is grammatically incorrect).

11  (B) keeping

• Why it is correct (The Key): The verb “suggest” is followed by a gerund when recommending an activity.
• Error Analysis: (D) “To keep” is a classic Common Mistake; learners frequently put infinitives after “suggest.” (C) “Keep” is a Structural Error. (A) “Writing” is a Meaning Trap; you “write in a journal,” but the action of maintaining one is “keeping a journal.”

12  (A) working

• Why it is correct (The Key): The gerund “working” acts as the subject of the sentence, representing the concept of the hobby.
• Error Analysis: (B) “Work” is a Common Mistake (base verb as subject). (D) “To working” is a Structural Error. (C) “Doing” is a Meaning Trap; you do not say “doing in the garden” without specifying an object.

13  (D) working

• Why it is correct (The Key): Phrasal verbs (like “give up”) end in prepositions, which means they must be followed by a gerund.
• Error Analysis: (C) “To work” is a Common Mistake. (B) “Work” is a Structural Error. (A) “To working” is a Structural Error.

14  (B) taking

• Why it is correct (The Key): In the phrase “look forward to,” the word “to” is a preposition, not an infinitive marker. Therefore, it must be followed by a gerund.
• Error Analysis: (A) “Take” is a massive Common Mistake; learners assume “to” is part of an infinitive. (D) “To taking” is a Structural Error (the sentence stem already contains “to”). (C) “Making” is a Meaning Trap; you “take” a bath, you don’t “make” it.

15  (C) lying

• Why it is correct (The Key): The verb “imagine” is followed by a gerund to visualize an activity.
• Error Analysis: (A) “To lie” is a Common Mistake. (D) “Lie” is a Structural Error. (B) “Laying” is a Meaning Trap; “laying” requires a direct object (like laying a towel), whereas “lying” means resting your body.

16  (A) trying

• Why it is correct (The Key): The fixed expression “it’s no use” is always followed by a gerund.
• Error Analysis: (D) “To try” is a Common Mistake. (B) “Try” is a Structural Error. (C) “Forcing” is a Meaning Trap; you would have to say “forcing myself to sleep,” making it grammatically incomplete here.

17  (D) cuddling

• Why it is correct (The Key): The verb “miss” (feeling sad about the absence of something) takes a gerund to represent the missed activity.
• Error Analysis: (C) “To cuddle” is a Common Mistake. (A) “Cuddle” is a Structural Error. (B) “Hugging” is a Meaning Trap; hugging is usually a brief action, whereas cuddling with a pet on a sofa implies a continuous, relaxing state.

18  (B) Being surrounded

• Why it is correct (The Key): This is a Passive Gerund acting as the subject. The speaker is receiving the action of the surroundings (nature surrounds them).
• Error Analysis: (C) “To surround” is a Common Mistake (active infinitive). (D) “Surround” is a Structural Error. (A) “Surrounding” is a Meaning Trap; it’s an active gerund, which implies the speaker is the one surrounding nature, making no logical sense.

19  (A) spending

• Why it is correct (The Key): The verb “admit” is followed by a gerund (or “to + V-ing”) when confessing to an action.
• Error Analysis: (D) “To spend” is a Common Mistake (using standard infinitive). (B) “Spend” is a Structural Error. (C) “Buying” is a Meaning Trap; you buy candles, but you spend money.

20  (D) Brewing / watching

• Why it is correct (The Key): This is a compound subject made of two parallel gerunds. Both actions represent the abstract concept of the hobby.
• Error Analysis: (A) “Brew / watch” is a Common Mistake (using base verbs as subjects). (C) “To brew / watching” is a Structural Error (it breaks parallelism by mixing infinitive and gerund). (B) “Cooking / seeing” is a Meaning Trap; you brew coffee, you don’t “cook” it.

1. V-ing as a Subject:
   When you want to talk about an activity as an abstract concept (like a hobby), use the Gerund form as the subject of your sentence.
• Example: Reading is relaxing. (NOT: Read is relaxing).
2. Verbs of Preference & Hobby:
   Verbs that express how you feel about an activity are almost always followed by V-ing because they refer to real, experienced events.
• Examples: enjoy, fancy, don’t mind, can’t stand, feel like, miss, avoid.
• Sentence: I enjoy listening to music.
3. Prepositions + V-ing:
   If an activity follows a preposition (in, about, of, for, to), it must be a gerund. Be very careful with phrases where “to” acts as a preposition!
• Example: I am interested in baking.
• Example: I look forward to taking a bath. (NOT: look forward to take).