3. Paco enjoyed listening to jokes (Gerund vs. infinitive)

Reading activity

After Devaj explained how they would avoid altitude sickness in their expedition, everybody relaxed. The Finnish who had asked Devaj the question about Mount Everest's climbing route was the first in telling a joke. The rest followed him and a lot of jokes were told before they went to their respective rooms. Paco enjoyed listening to jokes!
By MR38. C. Commons

The following are some of the jokes which Paco made and the rest of the group had a good time. Read them.

1. When I was young I didn't like going to weddings.
My grandmother would tell me, "You're next."

However, she stopped doing that after I started saying the same thing to her at funerals.

_________________________

2. A lawyer named Strange died, and his friend asked the tombstone maker to inscribe on his tombstone, "Here lies Strange, an honest man, and a lawyer." The inscriber insisted that such an inscription would be confusing, for passers-by would tend to think that three men were buried under the stone. However he suggested an alternative. He would inscribe, "Here lies a man who was both honest and a lawyer. That way, whenever anyone walked by the tombstone and read it, they would be certain to remark, 'That's Strange.'"

Read one of the jokes Paco enjoyed most below!

Solved exercise

On some occasions, the object of verbs may be either an infinitive with to or a gerund. Sometimes, these objects are even preceded by a subject (also known as agent) as in I would like him to tell a joke. In the jokes above there are some verbs followed by either a gerund or a to-infinitive.
Locate the sentences they are used in.

Of course infinitives or gerunds may be used for other reasons. For example, for a general truth, when a verb functions as the subject of another verb, the gerund is frequently used, as in Smoking is bad for health. But this is not studied here.

Unfortunately, verbs followed by gerunds and/or infinitives must be studied by heart, that is, memorized.

 

 

Important reporting verbs followed by gerunds:

accuse somebody of- "You stole it,didn't you? "  >They accused him of stealing it
admit (to)- "Ok, it was me" >he admitted stealing   (also: He admitted that he had stolen it)
apologise for - "Im really sorry I stole it"  > he apologised for stealing
confess (to) "Alright, it's a fair cop, you've got me. I stole it"  >He confessed to stealing
 complain about    "Hey, this is wrong, you can't arrest me" > he complained about being arrested (Also: He complained that they were arresting him)

deny            "I didn't take it" >   he denied stealing  (Also: He denied that he had taken it)
insist on         "I'm going to call my lawyer and that's final"> He insisted on calling his lawyer
prohibit someone from > Officer, make sure he doesn't talk to anyone" > The police chief prohibited the prisoner from talking to anyone
suggest > "Why don't we put him in a cell?" > He suggested putting him in a cell (Also: He suggested that they (should) put him in a cell)

 

 

Further knowledge

Nothing else can be said about these verbs. As almost always, one of the best ways to get used to them and to be able to use them in natural speech is by practising a lot. That's the reason why we offer you below lots of exercises to practice. Before doing them, however, we strongly recommend that you study the list you previously got.
Besides, by clicking here, you will get plenty of further information on the subject.
Now, let's do several exercises to improve those lists.
 
 
The ones above are just simple examples of exercises, you can find lots of exercises on the Web. Remember, the more you practise, the better for you and your English! In exercise 5 you have to look for the activities related to gerunds and infinitives.

Self-Assessment activity

Fill in the blanks with the to-infinitive or gerund of the verbs in brackets. Pay attention to the change in meaning!
By xcode. C. Commons

1. Don't forget (fill up) your water bottles.

2. Devaj suggested (go) to bed early.

3. Paco remembers (go) for long walks when he was younger.

4. Suddenly, Devaj stopped (talk) and reminded them (wear) comfortable shoes.

5. You have already finished (do) this exercise.

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Curiosity

Talking about jokes. Do you know why English is thought to be so difficult? Read the following which stands as a joke among British people.

The English Language

Let's face it
English is a stupid language.
There is no egg in the eggplant
No ham in the hamburger
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England
French fries were not invented in France.

We sometimes take English for granted
But if we examine its paradoxes we find that
Quicksand takes you down slowly
Boxing rings are square
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

If writers write, how come fingers don't fing.
If the plural of tooth is teeth
Shouldn't the plural of phone booth be phone beeth

If the teacher taught,
Why didn't the preacher praught. If a vegetarian eats vegetables
What the heck does a humanitarian eat!?
Why do people recite at a play
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways and
Drive on parkways

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy
Of a language where a house can burn up as
It burns down
And in which you fill in a form
By filling it out
And a bell is only heard once it goes!

English was invented by people, not computers
And it reflects the creativity of the human race
(Which of course isn't a race at all)

That is why
When the stars are out they are visible
But when the lights are out they are invisible
And why it is that when I wind up my watch
It starts
But when I wind up this observation,
It ends.
This is the end of topic 3. Remember that in the following section you can find more exercises to go on practising what you have learnt in the topic. See you in topic 4!