Page 136 - Basic English Usage

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try
Try ... -ing = ‘make an experiment; do something to see what will
happen’.
| tried sending her flowers, giving her presents, writing her /etters,;
but she still wouldn't speak to me.
Tryto ... = ‘make an effort’. It is used for things that are difficult.
| tried to write a letter, but my hands were too cold to hold a pen.

afraid
We use afraid of .. . -ing to talk about accidents.
! don't like to drive fast because I'm afraid of crashing.
(NOT ... trefraid-te-erash-)
in other cases, we can use afraid of .. . -ing or afraid to ... with no
difference of meaning.
I'm not afraid of telling/to tell her the truth.

sorry
We use sorry for ... -ingor sorry about .. . -ing to talk about past
things that we regret.
/'m sorry for/about waking you up. ( = |'m sorry that | woke you up.)
We can use a perfect infinitive with the same meaning.
I'm sorry to have woken you up.
Sorry + infinitive is used to apologize for something that we are doing or
going to do.
Sorry to disturb you — could | speak to you for a moment?
i'm sorry to tell you that you failed the exam.

10 certain and sure
if | say that somebody is certain/sure of doing something, | am talking
about his or her feelings — he or she feels sure.
Before the game she felt sure of winning, but after five minutes she
realized that it wasn't going to be so easy.
If | say that somebody is certain/sure to do something, | am talking about
my own feelings — | am sure that he or she will succeed.
‘Kroftova’s sure to win — the other girl hasn't got a chance.’ ‘Don't be
so sure.’

11 like, love, hate, prefer, begin, start, attempt, intend, continue, can’t
bear
After these verbs, we can use either the -ing form or the infinitive without
much difference of meaning. \