Verbs that take a gerund or an infinitive with different meanings:
When 'begin' is used in non-continuous tenses, you can use a gerund or an infinitive: She began singing. She began to sing.
When 'begin' is used in continuous tenses, an infinitive is used:
She is beginning to sing.
There are two kinds of conditional sentences: real and unreal. Real Conditional describes real-life situations. Unreal Conditional describes unreal, imaginary situations. Although the various conditional forms might seem quite abstract at first, they are actually some of the most useful structures in English and are commonly included in daily conversations.
Lesson by Tristan, teacher at EC Malta English school
Some verbs can be followed by a gerund or an infinitive, but with a difference in meaning.
Sarah remembered seeing the concert last year. (Sarah has a memory of – Sarah ‘recalls’ – seeing the concert.
Peter remembered to call Sarah on her birthday. (Peter did not forget to call Sarah)
Gerunds can often be modified with possessive forms such as his, her, its, your, their, our, John's, Mary's, the machine's, etc. This makes it clearer who or what is performing the action.
I enjoyed their singing. (They were singing)
She understood his refusing the offer. (He refused the offer)
She resented David coming late to the dinner. (David came late)
A gerund is a noun made by adding '-ing' to a verb. The gerund of the verb 'read' is 'reading'. The gerund can be used as the subject, the complement, or the object of a sentence.
Reading helps you improve your vocabulary. (subject)
Her favourite hobby is reading. (complement)
I enjoy reading. (object)
Gerunds are made negative by adding 'not'.
The best thing for your health is not drinking.
Movember is a moustache growing event held during each November that raises funds and awareness for men's _1_, you'll probably start to notice more and more men sporting moustaches as the month goes on.
The words ‘being’ and ‘been’ are sometimes confused. As a rule the word ‘been’ is always used after ‘have’ whereas ‘being’ is never used after ‘have’. It is used after ‘be’.
'Been' is the past participle of the verb 'be' and is usually used with the perfect aspect with ‘have’ in all its forms i.e. had and has
I have been busy. NOT I have being busy.
There are slight differences between 'amount of', 'quantity of' and 'number of'
Amount of is used for things you can’t measure. It is usually in front of a singular word.
I have a reasonable amount of work this week. Work – singular non-count word
He has a certain amount of respect for the sales team. Respect – singular non-count word