English Grammar with Kudjo. Part 3 Понятная и забавная грамматика для детей и взрослых.

Whenever there are two verbs together, one right after the other, the second verb must be in either the gerund form or the infinitive form.

What I mean is, we can never say She wanted go. or They enjoy run.

The second verb has to change, and the first verb dictates what form the second verb will be. To make these sentences correct, we have to say She wanted to go. or They enjoy running.

But why? And why can’t we say, She wanted going?

The simplest answer is, because there are certain rules we have to follow. Some verbs must be followed by gerunds.

Thus, we say Kudjo enjoys doing jigsaw puzzles. and we can never say He enjoys to do puzzles.

The list of the verbs that are followed by gerunds is not so big. The most common are:

love, like, dislike, hate, enjoy, prefer, finish, avoid, admit, confess to, consider, continue, deny, discuss, keep (=continue), look forward to, feel like, can’t help, imagine, fancy, miss, mind (in questions and negative sentences), can’t stand, object to, quit, pracrise, risk, spend, suggest, understand, etc.

EXERCISE 1

Find the proper verb and put it into the form of gerund: chat, take, get up, eat, get, look for, see, go, follow, gossip, stay, lie

1 Kudjo and Chilly spent all the morning ***** the boarding house.

2 Luna enjoys ***** and the girls spent all the night *****.

3 In the morning Cuba felt like ***** in bed till the evening.

4 But she couldn’t help ***** to join Luna for breakfast.

5 She knows Luna can’t stand ***** alone.

6 After breakfast Cuba and Luna were looking forward to ***** Kudjo and Chilly but they didn’t come.

7 Cuba found the message from Chilly, where he admitted ***** to the boarding place without them.

8 Luna and Cuba objected to ***** at home while the boys were having an adventure in the boarding house.

9 Luna suggested ***** Kudjo and Chilly.

10 Luna and Cuba will risk ***** into trouble if they go to this place on their own.

11 They prefer ***** a risk to feeling bored at home.

EXERCISE 2

Make up the sentences about our main characters using given verbs followed by the gerund:

For example,

Luna / can’t stand – Luna can’t stand having rows with Kudjo.

1 Kudjo / risk

2 Chilly / look forward to

3 Cuba / admit

4 Luna / enjoy

5 Luna’s parents / don’t mind

6 Luna’s ancestors / avoid

7 Kudjo and Luna / can’t help

8 Kudjo and Chilly / object to

9 Chilly and Cuba / prefer

10 Cuba and Luna / feel like

11 the bats / suggest

There are other cases of using the gerund:

– As a noun.

Clearing up the mystery is dangerous.

– After prepositions. You know that prepositions must always be followed by a noun and gerunds are very close to nouns. Therefore, if we want a verb to follow a preposition, we must change it to its gerund form.

Kudjo is interested in doing jigsaw puzzles.

– After the expressions: I’m busy, it’s no use, it’s (no) good, it’s worth, what’s the use of, be used to, there’s no point (in), get used to, have difficulty (trouble).

It’s worth risking.

EXERCISE 3

Finish the sentences using your ideas and gerunds:

For example,

Luna is afraid of …. – Luna is afraid of staying alone.

1 Kudjo and Chilly are discouraged by ….

2 Chilly is capable of ….

3 Kudjo is disappointed with ….

4 Luna is excited about ….

5 Kudjo is famous for ….

6 Cuba is fond of ….

7 The dogs are tired of ….

8 Luna has trouble ….

9 The dogs are busy ….

10 Cuba can’t get used to ….

11 Kudjo insists on ….

EXERCISE 4

Paraphrase the following sentences using gerunds:

For example,

Kudjo can swim very well. He is good ….– He is good at swimming.