Gerunds and Infinitives (Verbs): Fun & humorous ESL video to peak your students’ engagement!

This creative & engaging animated ESL video teaches learners about gerunds and infinitives (verbs) at the upper-intermediate level. Use this in class and have a blast! If you love our videos, please support us at Patreon: WEBSITE: For more creative, engaging and interactive animated grammar teaching videos, please visit our website. For the “No Music” version of this video, please go here: Title of English / ESL Video: Gerunds and Infinitives (Verbs) Target English Grammar: Gerunds and Infinitives (Verbs): – Gerund verbs. – Infinitives with “to”. – Infinitives without “to”. Student Proficiency Level: Upper-intermediate level grammar. Suggested Courses: General English Instructions: – Play the video in class after delivering a warm-up activity first. – Pause the video whenever the narrator asks students a question to give students time to answer. For example, after elicitations and concept checking questions (CCQs). Summary of English Grammar: Gerunds and Infinitives (Verbs) Approximate chronological order: Gerunds: – Elicitation of target grammar. Form: – Verb ing Function: – Gerunds act as nouns or pronouns. Specific Uses: – Likes/dislikes: I love shopping. – General activities: I’m good at dancing. – Abstract ideas: I’m not used to working late. – When there is no noun to describe something: Catching the train during peak hour is really annoying. – When speaking or writing in incomplete sentences: What are your hobbies? Watching TV and surfing the Internet. Use Gerunds: – As the subject of a sentence: Flying makes me nervous. – As the object of a sentence: I find listening to music very relaxing. – After prepositions: The police arrested her for speeding. – After phrasal verbs: She ended up going to prison. – After some verbs including: admit, avoid, can’t help, carry on, consider, deny, finish, give up, imagine, involve, keep on, miss, postpone, practice, risk, spend, stop, suggest. – Example: You should avoid taking a stroll outside during a hurricane. – After words for expressing like/dislike: can’t stand, crazy about, enjoy, fancy, hate, like/dislike, keen on, love, don’t mind, prefer. – Example: I love skydiving. Use Infinitives (with “to”): – To express a reason or purpose: He ran to avoid being caught. – After adjectives: This safe is easy to break open. – After some verbs, including: can/can’t afford, agree, appear, be able to, can’t wait, decide, expect, forget, happen, have (got), help, hope, learn, manage, need, offer, plan, pretend, promise, refuse, remember, seem, teach, tend, threaten, try, want, would like. – Example: He threatened to hurt the man. *Infinitives are not generally used as the subject of sentences. Use the Infinitive (without “to”) after: – Modal verbs: You should see a doctor. – Auxiliary verbs: We‘ll go swimming tomorrow. – let, make and help. – Example 1: Let‘s go shopping. – Example 2: Help me carry my shoes. – Example 3: Sometimes she makes me want to scream! Negative Forms: Target language form the negative with “not”: – Gerunds: I don’t like shopping. – Infinitives (with “to”): I don’t want to go shopping. – Infinitives (without “to”): I won’t go shopping. These verbs can be followed with either the gerund or infinitive (with “to”) with no difference in meaning: – begin, continue, prefer, start. For example: – I prefer doing yoga. – I prefer to do yoga. These verbs can be followed with either the gerund or infinitive (with “to”), but the meaning is different: – try, remember, forget, need. – Example 1: – Try not to hurt yourself again. (This means, make an effort to do something.) – You should try going to an Italian restaurant. (This means, try something to see if you like it.) – Example 2: – Remember to fasten your seatbelt. (This means, don’t forget something.) – I remember seeing you in high school. (This means, having a memory of something.) – Example 3: – I forgot to bring my luggage. (This means, you didn’t remember something.) – I’ll never forget seeing the beautiful scenery. (This means, you did something and you won’t forget it. It’s more common in the negative form.) – Example 4: – You need to buy a new car. (This means, you must do something.) – That car needs repairing. (This means, the subject needs something.)