Common Infinitives vs. Gerunds Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

The mistakes writers repeat

Infinitive and gerund errors fall into a few familiar patterns. Writers attach the wrong form to verbs like enjoy, decide, and avoid, or they forget that gerunds follow prepositions. Each mistake sounds slightly off and marks a draft as unpolished.

These mistakes are common because the rules are verb-specific and not always intuitive. The patterns are predictable, though, so a focused editing pass catches most of them before a reader does.

The most common mistakes

Mistakes that slip through

• using an infinitive after avoid, suggest, or finish
• using a gerund after hope, agree, or plan
• forgetting that verbs after prepositions always take gerunds
• mixing forms in lists, like I like swimming, running, and to bike

A pass to catch these mistakes

1. 1
   Check verbs that take gerunds

   Confirm enjoy, avoid, finish, suggest, and similar verbs are followed by gerunds.

2. 2
   Check verbs that take infinitives

   Confirm decide, want, hope, agree, and similar verbs are followed by infinitives.

3. 3
   Scan after prepositions

   Ensure every verb after a preposition is a gerund.

4. 4
   Align forms in lists

   Make sure parallel items share the same verb form.

Reduce repeated form errors

Infinitive and gerund mistakes repeat when writers fix them one at a time instead of learning the pattern. Add a single pass that checks the verb groups above, and the errors fall sharply across your writing. The pass takes only a few minutes per page.

For a faster sweep, use a grammar tool. The free Grammar Checker at AI Humanizer Lab flags form errors across an entire document with no word limits, which is especially helpful for non-native English speakers building reliable habits.

Forms that flow from practice

The infinitive-versus-gerund choice flows from practice more than from logic. Once you have seen enjoy followed by a gerund a dozen times, the wrong form starts to feel jarring. Exposure is the real teacher, so read widely and notice which form each common verb takes.

A practical shortcut is to keep a short personal list of verbs that trip you up, with their required form beside each. Review the list before you write, and the forms stick faster than any abstract rule. Within a few weeks, the most common verbs stop causing trouble.

High-frequency verbs to master

• enjoy, avoid, finish, and suggest, which take gerunds
• decide, want, hope, and agree, which take infinitives
• stop and remember, which change meaning with the form
• any verb that follows a preposition, which always takes a gerund

Forms that become automatic

Verb forms become automatic through exposure and a little focused practice. The more correct English you read, the more your instincts align with native patterns, and the less you rely on rules you have to look up. Over a few weeks, the most common verbs stop causing hesitation.

Keep a personal list of verbs that trip you up, and review it before you write. That small effort pays off quickly, because the same high-frequency verbs appear in almost everything you write. Mastering them removes a steady source of error and lets your attention return to your ideas.