One of the biggest challenges for English learners is choosing the right type of verb among the many different verb types available.
For example, should you use "take", "to take", "taking", or "taken"? The good news is that there are some rules that you can learn and memorize to help you use the correct form of a verb every time.
In this lesson, I've prepared rules to know when to use each of the four main forms of verbs:
Gerund form (doing, making, taking, going, etc.)
Infinitive form (to do, to make, to take, to go, etc.)
Present base form (do, make, take, go, etc.)
Past participle form (done, made, taken, gone, etc.)
Gerund Form (doing)
1) Together With The "Be" Verb - to create a verb phrase in a continuous tense
A gerund (or sometimes called a present participle) can be used as a verb in a clause but it needs to have the be verb with it. The be verb could be "am", "is", "are", "was", "were", "been" or just "be" depending on the tense that you are creating, but remember to include the "be" verb to make it a verb in a tense.
They are waiting for us now.
They were waiting for us yesterday.
They will be waiting for us when we arrive tomorrow.
They must be waiting for us now.
They have been waiting for us for an hour.
They had been waiting for us for an hour when we arrived earlier today.
2) Subject of a Clause – at the beginning of a clause before the verb that is in a tense form
When you are starting a new sentence or a new clause within a sentence (after a conjunction like and, but, so, because, if, when, etc), and you want to use a verb to be the subject of that sentence/clause, it should be in gerund form:
Studying a language is easy, but using that language in real life is hard.
Driving in the city makes me a little nervous, and driving at night is even worse!
Giving a presentation in front of people can be stressful, so practicing the presentation many times is important.
3) After Certain Verbs – as the object of the verb
Usually we think that verbs have nouns as objects, such as "I practice English" or "I like movies" but verbs can also be the object of verbs, such as "I practice speaking English" or "I like watching movies". Unfortunately, not every verb uses a gerund as an object. Some verbs use an infinitive verb as an object (see the infinitive verb section below) so it will require some memorization to remember which verbs use gerunds as objects. Three verbs that use gerund objects are "enjoy", "avoid", and "suggest":
He enjoys traveling to foreign countries
She avoids talking to strangers
They suggested taking the subway instead of the bus
To learn more about which verbs use gerunds as objects, click here for my lesson about this topic.
4) After a Preposition – as the object of prepositions
Prepositions must connect to nouns (that's the only thing they do) and gerunds are considered nouns when they are used by themselves (without the "be" verb). Therefore "cooking", "sleeping", and "thinking" are nouns by themselves and can be put after a preposition to be the object of the preposition. Even if you put a noun in front of the "ing" gerund to tell us who is doing that action, the "ing" is still a noun:
I'm afraid of flying because I'm worried about the plane crashing.
My daughter won't fall asleep without me reading a book to her.
I feel tired before starting work, but I feel much more awake after drinking some coffee.
Infinitives (to do)
1) After Adjectives - tells us what the adjective is describing
We typically use infinitive verbs after adjectives, which means that the adjective is describing the infinitive verb situation. For example, if you say "it is expensive to live in the city" it means that "to live in the city" is being described as "expensive".
It's fun to attend parties because it's interesting to meet new people.
It's nice to see you again and it's great to see that you're so healthy these days.
I was sad to hear that he died but I was glad to hear that he was at peace when it happened.
2) After Certain Verbs - as the object of those verbs
As you learned in the gerund section, verbs can also have objects that are also verbs, and sometimes those verbs are in gerund form ("I enjoy cooking") and sometimes those verbs are in infinitive verb form ("I want to eat"). Three verbs that use infinitive objects are "decide", "need", and "be going":
We decided to cancel the meeting.
He needs to ask you a question.
They are going to buy a house for their family.
To learn more about which verbs use gerunds as objects, click here for my lesson about this topic.
3) After Question Words (how, what, where, when) - tells us what action the question word is related to
You can use an infinitive verb after question pronouns like "what", "where", "how", etc. to express what the pronoun is related to:
I don't know what to do about the problem.
He showed me how to change the tires on my car.
This map will show you where to go.
4) Expressing a Goal or Desired Outcome - tells us why we are doing something (what the goal is)
One of the most common ways to use an infinitive verb is to tell us what the goal or desired outcome of an action is. The long version is saying "in order to..." but we often remove the "in order" part and use just the infinitive verb part to express the goal. Therefore, you can say "I walk to work in order to get fresh air", or "I walk to work to get fresh air"
He's going to the gym every day (in order) to lose weight.
I'm saving money each month (in order) to buy a car.
She's taking English classes (in order) to attend college in Canada.
Present Base form (do)
1) Imperative Form - giving commands, orders, and instructions
When you want to tell the listener or reader to do something as a command or instruction, start with only the present base form verb. In this case, the subject is always "you" but we don't say or write "you":
Stay right here and wait for a minute.
Listen to the recording and answer the questions on your paper.
Don't drink coffee late at night. Drink water or milk instead.
2) Starting a Present Tense
Every present tense in English will start with a present base form verb to establish the time period as "present", whether it's present simple, present continuous, present perfect, or present perfect continuous.
I do my homework every night (present simple)
He plays guitar but He doesn't play the drums (present simple)
She is sleeping right now (present continuous - starts with "is")
We have done this before (present perfect - starts with "have")
They have been practicing their presentation for several hours (present perfect continuous - starts with "have")
Past Participle (done)
1) Present Perfect and Past Perfect Tenses - after "have" or "had"
Perfect tenses use a combination of the "have' verb and a past participle. For present perfect tense, you need to use "have" or "has" and for past perfect you need to use "had":
When they arrived for dinner, we had already eaten.
He has never seen this movie before.
I haven't received a reply from her yet.
2) Passive Form - after the "be" verb
When the subject of a clause receives an action instead of performing that action, we use passive form, which is a combination of the "be" verb and a past participle. For example, "authors" perform the action of "write" and books receive the action of "write", so you can either use the active form and say "the author wrote the book" or use passive form and say "the book was written" with the be verb and the past participle "written".
The money was stolen from the bank.
The meals are prepared by a professional chef.
The information that was given to us was very helpful.
To learn more about how to use passive form correctly, click here to read my lesson about it
If you found this grammar lesson useful, you can learn 49 more essential rules about English grammar through my e-book Grammar Essentials, which will help you quickly and easily learn how to use different tenses, conditionals, prepositions, passive form, and modals, among many other topics.
Practice
Choose the correct form of verb to use in each sentence based on the rules provided in this lesson. Use the words in bold to help you determine the answer:
He's taking/take lessons to learn how singing/to sing.
I'm not very good at draw/drawing but I'm interested in learning/to learn.
Listen/Listening to your mother when she is talk/talking to you.
Our product is sell/sold in stores all over the country. Many people have buy/bought it already.
I exercise/exercising every morning to boost/for boost my energy level.
We have been plan/planning this trip for months. We decided go/to go to Japan for a few weeks.
Living/Live alone can be lonely sometimes but having/to have a roommate would be harder for me.
He doesn't know how turn/to turn on the machine, so I showed him what to do/to doing.
The soccer game was watch/watched by ten million people on TV. I enjoyed watch/watching it too.
We going/are going bake/to bake a delicious cake to give/giving it to him on his birthday
Answers
The answers are provided below along with the rule that each answer follows from the lesson above:
He's taking (gerund #1) lessons to learn how to sing. (infinitive #3)
I'm not very good at drawing (gerund #4) but I'm interested in learning. (gerund #4)
Listen (present base form #1) to your mother when she is talking (gerund #1) to you.
Our product is sold (past participle #2) in stores all over the country. Many people have bought (past participle #1) it already.
I exercise (present base form #2) every morning to boost (infinitive verb #4) my energy level.
We have been planning (gerund #1) this trip for months. We decided to go (infinitive #2) to Japan for a few weeks.
Living (gerund #2) alone can be lonely sometimes but having (gerund #2) a roommate would be harder for me.
He doesn't know how to turn (infinitive #3) on the machine, so I showed him what to do. (infinitive #3)
The soccer game was watched (past participle #2) by ten million people on TV. I enjoyed watching (gerund #3) it too.
We going/are going bake/to bake a delicious cake to give/giving (infinitive #4) it to him on his birthday.
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