Essential Verbs That Take Gerunds and How to Use Them
Mastering gerunds after verbs unlocks smoother, more natural English. These verb-plus-ing forms follow specific verbs that native speakers use constantly.
Below, you’ll discover the most frequent gerund-taking verbs, their hidden restrictions, and real-life templates you can plug into emails, stories, or meetings today.
Core Verbs That Demand Gerunds
admit, avoid, consider, deny, enjoy, finish, imagine, keep, miss, practice, quit, suggest always seat a gerund directly after them.
Saying “I enjoy to swim” instantly marks speech as non-native; “I enjoy swimming” feels effortless.
Keep a pocket list of these ten; they cover half the gerund situations you’ll ever need.
admit
“She admitted taking the last cookie” shows ownership of an action.
Notice the gerund “taking” carries the whole blame; no extra preposition is allowed.
avoid
“We avoided driving during the storm” illustrates prevention.
Swap the gerund for an infinitive and the sentence collapses.
consider
“They’re considering relocating to Lisbon” frames a future possibility.
The gerund keeps the option conceptual, not yet real.
Verbs That Flip Meaning With Gerunds vs. Infinitives
remember, forget, stop, try, regret swing the timeline depending on which form follows.
“I remembered to lock the door” means the remembering happened before the locking; “I remember locking the door” means the locking is now a memory.
One letter change—to vs. -ing—rewrites reality.
remember
Use the infinitive for future duties: “Remember to send the invoice”.
Use the gerund for past playback: “I remember sending the invoice”.
stop
“He stopped smoking” means cigarettes are gone from his life.
“He stopped to smoke” means he paused another activity so he could light up.
Business-Grade Gerund Verbs
anticipate, postpone, risk, justify, facilitate, recommend, acknowledge dominate reports and meetings.
“The CFO anticipates exceeding Q2 targets” sounds precise and forward-looking.
Replace the gerund with an infinitive and the sentence sounds junior or wrong.
anticipate
It expects both the action and its consequences.
“We anticipate facing heavier regulation” warns stakeholders early.
postpone
“The team postponed launching the beta” keeps the delay attached to the whole action.
No native says “postpone to launch”.
Social Gerunds for Daily Conversation
fancy, can’t help, don’t mind, feel like, keep on, give up, put off grease casual talk.
“Do you fancy grabbing coffee?” feels friendlier than “Do you want to grab coffee?”
These verbs create instant rapport because they mirror native rhythm.
fancy
It invites, never commands.
“I fancy seeing that movie” shows mild desire without pressure.
can’t help
“I can’t help laughing” admits loss of control.
The gerund captures the involuntary action.
Hidden Patterns That Speed Up Learning
Verbs of completion, hesitation, and emotion gravitate toward gerunds.
Completion: finish, complete, wrap up.
Hesitation: delay, resist, postpone.
Emotion: love, hate, dread, appreciate.
Completion Cluster
Once the action is done, the gerund treats it as a single unit.
“She finished writing the code at 3 a.m.” seals the event.
Hesitation Cluster
These verbs stall the action, so the gerund keeps it suspended.
“He delayed asking for a raise” shows the action still hanging.
Common Mistakes That Label You as a Learner
Adding “to” before the gerund: “I avoid to eat late” is a red flag.
Using a bare infinitive: “I enjoy play guitar” sounds robotic.
Confusing “go + gerund” rules: “go fishing” is correct; “go to fish” is weekend-only dialect.
Double-Verb Trap
After “enjoy,” never add another verb in infinitive form.
Right: “I enjoy cooking.” Wrong: “I enjoy to cook.”
Preposition Slip
“I’m thinking to take a break” should be “I’m thinking of taking a break”.
“Think” needs a preposition before the gerund.
Memory Hacks That Stick
Turn the verb list into a micro-story: “ADMIT you AVOIDed FINISHing, but ENJOYed IMAGINing”.
Each capitalized verb forces a gerund; chant it while commuting.
Record yourself reading example sentences; play them back at 1.25× speed to plant the rhythm.
Chunking by Vowel Sound
Group “admit, consider, finish” for the short-i echo.
Your brain stores them as one phonetic blob.
Gesture Linking
Tap your desk once for gerund-only verbs, twice for meaning-flippers.
Physical motion anchors abstract grammar.
Advanced Gerund Verbs in Academic Writing
entail, necessitate, justify, substantiate, corroborate, downplay, underplay carry scholarly weight.
“This study entails controlling for three confounds” signals rigorous design.
These verbs rarely accept infinitives without sounding clunky.
entail
It warns that the action is non-negotiable.
“Implementing the policy entails retraining staff” removes wishful thinking.
substantiate
“The data substantiate using a hybrid model” makes the gerund the core evidence.
Swap in an infinitive and peer reviewers will flag the sentence.
Gerunds After Prepositional Verbs
Some verbs drag a preposition along; the preposition then demands a gerund.
insist on, approve of, confess to, object to, succeed in, refrain from follow this pattern.
“She insisted on paying” keeps the preposition; remove it and the sentence fractures.
insist on
It adds social pressure.
“They insist on meeting the deadline” signals no flexibility.
refrain from
“Please refrain from smoking” is polite legalese.
The gerund becomes the forbidden action.
Passive Gerund Constructions
Combine being + past participle after the verb to shift blame or focus.
“He hates being interrupted” puts the spotlight on the interruption, not the interrupter.
“The project risks being cancelled” warns without naming who might cancel.
being + past participle
It keeps the sentence agentless, perfect for diplomacy.
“She denied being informed” sidesteps who should have informed her.
Negative Gerunds for Subtlety
Place not directly before the gerund to soften refusals.
“I regret not calling sooner” shows remorse without groveling.
“He avoided not answering the question” creates a double shield.
strategic not
It lets you admit fault while controlling the narrative.
“We appreciate not having to remind you” sounds grateful and pointed at once.
Gerunds in Compound Nouns
When gerunds slide into noun slots, they still keep their verb DNA.
“The marketing team questioned the budgeting” turns “budgeting” into the topic, not the action.
Recognize this shift to avoid overloading sentences with extra verbs.
-ing as Topic
“Scheduling remains tricky” treats the gerund as a thing.
No second verb is needed, so the sentence stays lean.
Real-World Templates You Can Paste
Email update: “We anticipate receiving the contract by Friday”.
Meeting minute: “The committee recommended postponing the vote”.
Slide title: “Justify increasing the budget: three risk factors”.
Each template is six words or fewer, yet grammatically bulletproof.
Customer Support
“We appreciate your choosing our service” feels personal.
It brands the company as respectful.
Job Interview
“I enjoy solving complex logistical problems” packages you as proactive.
The gerund keeps the focus on habitual strength.
Quick Diagnostic Test
Read a paragraph and highlight every verb followed by “to”; circle every -ing form after a verb.
If any “to” follows admit, avoid, or enjoy, you’ve found the error.
Swap it for a gerund and re-read aloud—fluency jumps instantly.
One-Minute Rewrite
Take yesterday’s email, locate an infinitive after a gerund-only verb, and change it.
Your brain records the fix as a personal win, not an abstract rule.