The Pattern

Certain English verbs must be followed by the -ing form (the gerund) when another verb comes next. There is no deep grammatical reason you can derive from logic — it is simply how these verbs work, and learning the most common ones saves you from a huge number of mistakes.

The structure is straightforward:

subject + verb + verb-ing

✅ She enjoys cooking Italian food. ❌ She enjoys to cook Italian food.

The second verb takes the -ing ending, not the infinitive (to + verb). That's the whole rule. The challenge is knowing which verbs demand it.

Verbs That Take the -ing Form

Here are the ones you'll meet most often. Read them as a practical checklist rather than a list to memorise all at once — you already know many of these from daily use:

enjoy, finish, avoid, keep, mind, suggest, consider, imagine, practise, miss, risk, give up, can't help, deny, admit, recommend, delay, feel like

A few quick tests with real sentences:

✅ I avoid driving during rush hour. ❌ I avoid to drive during rush hour.

✅ He keeps forgetting his password. ❌ He keeps to forget his password.

✅ Do you mind opening the window? ❌ Do you mind to open the window?

Notice that no matter the tense or subject, the second verb stays in the -ing form. You change the first verb for tense; the gerund never changes.

Where Learners Go Wrong

The single most common mistake at B1–B2 level is using the infinitive after a gerund-only verb, especially with enjoy, suggest, and finish. This happens because many other common verbs (like want, decide, hope) do take the infinitive, and learners generalise the pattern.

❌ I finished to write the report. ✅ I finished writing the report.

❌ She suggested to go to the beach. ✅ She suggested going to the beach.

Another frequent error is with "feel like". Because like on its own can take either form (I like swimming / I like to swim), students assume feel like works the same way. It doesn't — feel like always needs -ing:

✅ I don't feel like going out tonight. ❌ I don't feel like to go out tonight.

Tricky Edges

Some verbs accept both the gerund and the infinitive but with different meanings. These are not the focus here, but knowing they exist prevents confusion:

• stop doing something = quit the activity → He stopped smoking. (He no longer smokes.)
• stop to do something = pause in order to do it → He stopped to smoke. (He paused so he could have a cigarette.)

The verbs on the list above — enjoy, avoid, mind, finish, keep, suggest, consider, and the rest — do not have this double life. They take the -ing form only, every time, with no meaning shift to worry about.

One more thing worth noting: when a preposition follows a verb (think about, apologise for, look forward to), the next verb is always -ing, regardless of the main verb. The word to in look forward to is a preposition, not part of an infinitive:

✅ I look forward to hearing from you. ❌ I look forward to hear from you.

A Practical Shortcut

If you're unsure whether a verb takes the gerund or the infinitive, try slotting in a noun after it. If a noun sounds natural, the gerund will almost certainly work too, because gerunds function like nouns:

• I enjoy music. → I enjoy playing music. ✅
• She avoids conflict. → She avoids arguing. ✅

This isn't a bulletproof rule, but it's a useful instinct-check when you're writing or speaking and can't look anything up.