Podcast 86 - Full and 'ing' infinitives

Story starts at 8:21

Today I'm doing a B1 level podcast about infinitives. Now, the problem with infinitives in English is that there are three of them. So, I will just briefly talk about the three types of infinitive. And the practice I'm going to do today is just on two types, and there's a shorter story afterwards to illustrate the infinitives I'm using.

There are three types of infinitive as I've said. So if we take a verb, let's say the verb do, the verb do has three infinitive forms. First of all the full infinitive, and that is to do then there is the bare infinitive and bare means with no clothes on! So the bare infinitive is without the to. So that's the verb form do. And then the final one is with ing at the end. So we have doing - so we call that the ing infinitive, or we can also call it a gerund.

Right. So I'll go through some examples. Then when we use two of those infinitives that I'm looking at today, which are the full infinitive and the ing form. Now the full infinitive is used depending on the words that come before the infinitive, or the context - the grammatical context of the infinitive. So let me explain.

The full infinitive

After adjectives, we usually use the full infinitive. So for example, we will say that's difficult to do. I'm pleased to meet you. It's important to understand. I'm happy to say. it's very nice to meet you. So usually then after adjectives, we use the full infinitive.

Where it becomes more complicated is because after certain verbs we use the infinitive with to or the full infinitive, but not after all verbs, just a number of verbs. So for example, we would say agree to do something, to arrange to do something, to choose to do something, decide to do something. So you can see then, that some verbs will take to - the full infinitive. Which ones are they? Well, I think the best thing is just through reading and listening, you will hear these verbs and the infinitives used and remember them that way - rather than learning lists of verbs.

Infinitive with 'ing'

The next type of infinitive I'm going to look at then are the ing ones. And we use ing infinitives, or the gerund, sometimes it's called, after prepositions. So we would say for example, I'm worried about doing something because about is a preposition. I'm interested in playing tennis this afternoon - interested in - and in is the preposition - so we say playing tennis. After having a swim, I feel so much better. After having so after is the preposition. And one more, you cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs. So without is the preposition and breaking then is the ing form of the infinitive.

And then there are some verbs which take the ing and the most common ones are the ones which express likes and dislikes. So we usually say I like playing football. I love eating pizza. I can't stand watching television all the time. So these verbs then take the ing form. I enjoy painting. I really dislike people using the mobile phone on the train.

And there are some other verbs as well, which use ing. To finish I will finish doing my homework this afternoon.

So, what I would like you to do now is to listen to a little story that I'm going to read you. I would like you to listen out for the examples of when we use the full infinitive that's the infinitive with to and the ing infinitive, that's the gerund form. So if you have a pen and paper to hand, you can write down as many as you can as you are listening to the story. And then if you come over to Practising English (podcast number 86), you can read the transcript, and all the verbs with the infinitives in the ing form and full infinitive are highlighted for you to look at, and check your answers.

So here we go. And there's a word I'm going to explain to you. A word which comes in the story, which is to swallow. I'll explain this word, because this is a B2 word. And to swallow is when you put something in your mouth, and it passes down to your stomach. For example, when you're eating food - that is to swallow. It's a funny story. I hope you think is funny! And it's about... Well, I'll tell you the story. It's called 'Doctor Doctor. I've swallowed a horse'. So here we go...

Doctor, doctor, I've swallowed a horse! (story)

A brown horse

Doctor Jones had a small doctor's surgery in a country village. The doctor worked there with a nurse, Sylvia, who helped her with the patients, and who also took care of the administrational tasks. The only patients who came to visit Dr Jones were the inhabitants of that village and a few people who lived in country houses and farms nearby. It wasn't difficult for Dr Jones to run the surgery, and she was always pleased to help the local residents with their illnesses. Both Dr Jones and her nurse, Sylvia, enjoyed working there and would never refuse to care for a patient.

One day, somebody arrived at the surgery without telephoning first for an appointment. Neither Dr Jones nor Sylvia knew who he was. That was strange because it was a small village and everybody knew each other. At that hour, Dr Jones had no patients, so she agreed to see the man and said she would be happy to help him with his problem.

'Good morning, Doctor,' said the man. 'My name is Bill Sykes. I've recently bought a farm in this area. Thank you for seeing me without an appointment.'

'That's fine, Mr Sykes,' said Dr Jones. 'It's nice to meet you. I'll be glad to help. What seems to be the problem?'

'Well, doctor. I started working [or, started to work] in the field this morning at about eight o'clock. I was looking after the horses. Suddenly, I fell over. I fell on top of a horse. When I got up, the horse had disappeared. I'm afraid I swallowed* it, Doctor!'

Dr Jones didn't know what to think. She thought the man must be mad. First of all, she tried to convince him that probably the horse just ran away and had escaped from the field. She told him it was important to understand that it was impossible to swallow a horse. A horse was too big to fit inside the stomach of a human being.

Mr Sykes wouldn't listen. He was convinced that he had swallowed a horse.

'I can't stand having the horse inside me, doctor!' he said. 'I can feel it moving in my stomach! You could help me by opening my stomach and taking it out, couldn't you?'

Dr Sykes remembered that she always promised to help all her patients, so she decided to help.

Dr Jones asked Mr Sykes to lie down on a bed, and Mr Sykes agreed to allow the doctor and nurse to operate on him and to take out the horse from his stomach. The nurse gave Mr Sykes an anaesthetic**. When Mr Sykes was asleep, Dr Jones went out and visited a friend of hers who lived near the surgery. Her friend had a horse that lived in a garden behind her house. She listened to the doctor's story and arranged to lend the horse to the doctor for a few hours. They both laughed about having this new patient who was obviously mad. Then the doctor went back to the surgery with the horse. She managed to get it through the door and into the surgery. Eventually, Mr Sykes woke up.

'Mr Sykes,' said the doctor. 'I'm happy to tell you the operation went very well! I have succeeded in taking the horse out of your stomach! Here it is!'

At first, Mr Sykes was very surprised to see the horse but glad to know he didn't have the horse inside him any more. But then he said,

'Doctor, I think you've made a mistake. The horse I swallowed was white, and this horse is brown!'

*To swallow (B2 verb) - when you eat something, it passes from your mouth into your stomach - that action is to swallow.
**An anaesthetic - a drug to make somebody sleep and feel no pain during an operation.

You can learn more about these infinitives here...