How to distinguish verbs

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Skyline

#408885 Fri, 24 Aug 07 06:51 PM

Hi there,

I have two questions here
First, There are a few different kind of verbs in English
Intransitive verb, Transitive veb, Ditransitive verb, so can you tell me others if there is more and perhaps with some examples.

second, some verbs have to be followed in "ing" form after certain verbs. for example, "We start working tomorrow", never "we start to work tomorrow"
and also some verbs must not be followed by another verb in "ing" form. for example, "I want to go there" not "I want going there". Could you tell me what's each verb called and how to distinguish when to use either in "ing" form or not in "ing" form.

thanks in advance.

Skyline

Joined on Thu, Aug 2 2007

New York

New Member (09)

Verbs

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Ruslana

#408941 Fri, 24 Aug 07 09:26 PM

Hi, Skyline,

As to your second point, I've run across both 'ing' verbs and infinitives after 'start', so either usage would be okay these days, I reckon.

When learning English at university, we used to learn by heart those verbs that should be followed with an 'ing' verb and with an infinitive. (I still have somewhere a list of such verbs devided in two columns, but I guess it's not too correct since it claimed 'start' should always take an 'ing' verb - but it's not quite so, as I've mentioned.)

By the way, when you use an 'ing' verb or an invinitive, there may be a difference in meanings:

He stopped to smoke. <-- He made a stop in order to smoke a cigarette.

He stopped smoking. <-- He gave up smoking.

Ruslana

Joined on Sat, Dec 17 2005

Russia

Senior Member (3,197)

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace", - Jimi Hendrix

Verbs, Universities, Learning English

Skyline

#409100 Sat, 25 Aug 07 04:42 AM

Hi Ruslana,

You're right.

I think I am too confused, even though I learned it yesterday. even the examples I learned yesterday are almost the same as you mentioned. (they stopped to fight / they stopped fighting) of course they have different meanings.

thanks for your help.

Skyline

Ruslana

#409175 Sat, 25 Aug 07 09:07 AM

If you want me to, I could find the list of those verbs, so we could compare whether your and my lists are equal. I'll do it a bit later, though.

Ruslana

Verbs

merg

#519994 Wed, 28 May 08 12:49 PM

Hi all,

No time for a painfully accurate discussion of the verb "start" in relation to this topic, but I will say that you can't use the "ing" form to follow it if start is in a continuous tense!.."It's starting TO RAIN" and NOT "It's starting raining"...shame that most lists on this subject are not at all accurate...

Which leads me to a question..has anyone got such a list? I need to find one quite quickly, mine's gone walkabout and I haven't got time to write it from scratch!

Thanks in advance