Verb Patterns
Level B1 · Verb Patterns
Many English verbs are followed by another verb, but the form of that second verb — a gerund (-ing) or a to-infinitive — depends entirely on the first verb, not on logic or meaning: enjoy is always followed by -ing (I enjoy swimming), while want is always followed by to (I want to swim). There's no shortcut — each verb's pattern has to be learned individually. English also has phrasal verbs: a verb plus one or more small words (particles) that together create a meaning you can't guess from the parts — give up doesn't mean 'give' anything 'up'; it means to quit.
Group verbs by which pattern follows them:
- -ing only: enjoy, avoid, finish, suggest, mind, admit, deny, keep — I enjoy swimming (not I enjoy to swim).
- to + infinitive only: want, decide, hope, promise, agree, refuse, plan — I want to go (not I want going).
- Either, same meaning: like, love, hate, start, begin, continue — I like swimming / I like to swim.
- Either, different meaning: stop doing (= quit an activity) vs stop to do (= pause in order to do something else); remember/forget doing (= a memory of a past action) vs remember/forget to do (= not forgetting an upcoming duty).
A phrasal verb is a verb + particle(s) with its own meaning, separate from the individual words:
- give up (= quit), look after (= take care of), run into (= meet by chance), put off (= postpone) — the meaning isn't guessable from the parts alone.
- Separable phrasal verbs let the object go either between the verb and the particle, or after both: turn off the light / turn the light off — but a pronoun object must go in the middle: turn it off (not turn off it).
- Inseparable phrasal verbs never split — the object always comes after the whole phrase, whether it's a noun or a pronoun: look after the baby / look after her (not look the baby after).
The most common mistake is using the wrong pattern after a fixed verb: I enjoy to swim and I want swimming are both wrong — enjoy always takes -ing, want always takes to. A second frequent error: putting a pronoun object after a separable phrasal verb instead of in the middle — turn off it is wrong; it must be turn it off.
Look for verbs like enjoy/avoid/finish/suggest/mind signalling -ing, verbs like want/decide/hope/promise/agree signalling to + infinitive, small particles (up, off, into, after, down) stuck to a verb with an idiomatic meaning, and a pronoun object as the test for whether a phrasal verb can be split.