5. It’s one of the crazy, difficult things about English.
6. We’re going to divide verbs into seven different groups. 7 ?!?
7. Here we go:Group One: Some verbs always take the infinitive. Here are some examples: We decided to come to the U.S.
8. Group Two: These verbs can be followed by a noun or object pronoun, and then the infinitive. Here are some examples: My boss asked me to work late.
9. Group Three: This is a very small group of verbs that are followed by the base form of a verb.There are only three of them: Her parents don’t let her stay out late.
10. Group Four: This group has only one word in it! “Help” can be followed by a base form or infinitive. There is no difference in meaning. My friend helped us move. My friend helped us to move.
11. Group Five: These verbs always take a gerund, and not an infinitive. (If you speak Spanish or French, you are used to using an infinitive, but English in this case is more complicated.) Here are some examples:
12. Some examples from Group Five:They have finished repairing the road.I dislike going to the dentist.
13. Note that for the verbs advise, consider and permit, we use a gerund if there is no object and an infinitive if there is one ! Most workplaces in California do not permit smoking.butMost workplaces in California do not permit you to smoke.
14. Group Six: These are verbs that can take either the gerund or the infinitive, and the meaning is about the same. Here are some examples: I began working on this lesson an hour ago. I began to work on this lesson an hour ago.
15. Group Seven: This is the trickiest group of all! These verbs can take either a gerund or an infinitive, and the meanings are different!!Here are some examples: The following slides show examples of what happens with each of the verbs in Group Seven.
