B2 First · Grammar · Pattern 7 of 10
Which verbs take -ing, which take 'to', and the pairs where the choice changes the meaning — stop to do, stop doing.
1 of 8
Sam stopped so that he could buy a coffee.
STOPPED
Sam a coffee.
Every verb in English has a preference for what follows it, and the preference is not logical — it is learned. 'Refuse to do', 'give up doing', 'remember doing' versus 'remember to do'. Part 4 tests the preference directly, and it especially likes the small group of verbs where both forms are possible but mean different things: 'stopped to buy a coffee' (paused in order to buy) against 'stopped buying coffee' (gave it up).
The second group is the prepositional one. 'Look forward to', 'be used to', 'feel like', 'no point in' all end in a preposition, and a verb after a preposition is always -ing. The trap is the word 'to', which looks like the start of an infinitive and is not: 'looking forward to starting', not 'to start'.
'Used to'. Three different structures share those two words. 'I used to get up early' is a past habit; 'I am used to getting up early' is a present habit you are accustomed to; 'I got used to getting up early' is the change between them. The exam gives you 'I find it strange to' and wants 'am not used to getting' — a preposition, so -ing.
'Let' and 'allow'. 'The manager wouldn't let us take photos' has no passive, so it is reported with 'be allowed to': 'we weren't allowed to take'. 'Let' takes a bare infinitive; 'allow' takes 'to'. Candidates transfer the bare infinitive and write 'allowed take'.
Look at the word immediately before the gap in the second sentence, or the key word if it is a verb. If it is a preposition — to, of, in, like, for — the next verb is -ing, no exceptions. If it is a verb, ask which pattern it takes; the eight in this drill cover the ones Part 4 uses most.
For the meaning-changing pairs, ask what happened first. 'Remember locking' means the locking came first and the memory afterwards; 'remember to lock' means the reminder comes first and the locking afterwards. 'Stop to do' pauses one thing to start another; 'stop doing' ends it.
Not a reliable one. There are tendencies — verbs of liking and finishing tend to take -ing, verbs of wanting and deciding tend to take 'to' — but 'enjoy doing' and 'want to do' are learned as items, not derived. The efficient approach is the one the drill takes: learn the fifteen or so verbs the exam actually uses, with an example sentence each.
Because that 'to' is a preposition, part of the phrasal verb 'look forward to', not the marker of an infinitive. Test it by putting a noun after it: 'looking forward to the weekend' works, so 'to' is a preposition, so a verb after it is -ing.
