Page 132 - Basic English Usage

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and, or, except, but, than
We can join two infinitives with and, or, except, but, or than. The second
infinitive is usually without to.
!'d like to lie down and go (o sleep.
Do you want to eat now or wait til! later?
We had nothing to do except look at the garden.
[Ido anything but work on a farm.
it's easier to do it yourself than explain to somebody else how to doit.

180 -ing form (‘gerund’)

Gerund or participle
Words like smoking, walking are verbs. But we can also use them as
adjectives or nouns. Compare:
You're smoking too much these days. (part of a verb)
There was a smoking cigarette end in the ashtray. (adjective)
Smoking is bad for you. (noun: subject of sentence)
When -ing forms are used as verbs or adjectives, they are called
‘present participles’. For details, see 234-236. When they are more like
nouns, grammars call them ‘gerunds’.
For the use of gerunds, see this section and the next two.
Subject, object or complement of a sentence

An -ing form can be a subject, object or complement.
Smoking is bad for you. (subject)
| hate packing. (object)
My favourite activity is reading. (complement)
The -ing form subject, object or complement is still a verb, and can have
its own object.
Smoking cigarettes is bad for you.
| hate packing suitcases.
My favourite activity is reading poetry.
We can use determiners (for example the, my) with -ing forms.
the opening of Parliament
Do you mind my smoking?
(OR, not so formal:Do you mind me smoking? )

After verb
After some verbs we can use an -ing form, but not an infinitive.
to-
/ enjoy travelling. (NOT +enjey )
travel
He's finished mending the car. (NOT ... te-mend ... }
e