Unit 25

Verbals as object

Infinitive as Object

We find the infinitive as object after some verbs:

• Margaret continued to visit Jack in hospital.

• He did not want to be left alone.

• I pretended to be listening.

The infinitive as object is used after modal phrases can afford and can bear in negative and interrogative forms:

• Can you afford to go on such an expensive trip?

• I couldn’t bear to damage him.

The infinitive is used after set phrases: to make up one’s mind

to take care, to take the trouble

to make sure

• I took care to ask Strickland nothing about his own doings.

• The next day he made sure to buy a copy of the newspaper.

After to help the infinitive is used with or with­out to:

• Helen will help (to) make tea.

• Will you help (to) talk her out of it?

As object of an adjec­tive the infinitive is always used with to:

• I am curious to know the news.

• He would be crazy not to do so.

Occasionally a for-phrase is used as subject of the infinitive:

• He was eager for me to start on my new job.

• I am prepared for everyone to accuse me of being foolish.

The infinitive may be part of a wh-phrase (whether, what, who, whom, how, etc.) and is always used with to:

• He went away, not knowing where to turn or what to do.

• He could not decide whether to speak or not.

The infinitive is used with it as subject:

• It pleased her to see how other chil­dren played with her son.

• It does me good to watch her playing with the other children.

• It took several days for her to fully realize it.

• It was his turn to cook breakfast.

The in­finitive is also found after adjectives and ing-forms with it as a subject:

• It was surprising to hear his voice.

• It was unwise to be rude to David.

Note: it is worth while + Infinitive

is worth + ing-form

• It might be worth while to mention that there is a train soon.

• Do you think it is worth opening a shop somewhere?

ing-form as Object

The ing-form (not Infinitive) is used as a direct object after the fol­lowing verbs:

to avoid	to give up	to mind (- ,?)	to remember
to begin	to go on	to postpone	to resume
to continue	to hate	to pre­fer	to risk
to delay	to keep	to propose	to start
to enjoy	to like	to put off	to stop
to finish	to love	to quit	to suggest
to forget	to mention	to recollect	to try

• Few writers avoided making mistakes.

• The rest of us finished eating.

• Roger went on speaking with energy.

• He kept on smiling at her and speaking.

The ing-form as object is used after some modal phrases in the negative:

can’t bear	They can’t bear being humiliated.
can’t face	She couldn’t face being talked about.
can’t fancy	I can’t fancy seeing you here.
can’t imagine	I can’t imagine seeing you here.
can’t stand	He can’t stand being laughed at.
can’t help	He couldn’t help asking me.

The ing-form is also used after the set phrase to feel like:

• I didn’t feel like talking to him after what had happened.

• I don’t feel like eating anything.

The ing-form may be a direct object of ad­jectives — busy and worth:

• The man was busy shouting.

• He thought my idea was worth trying.

The ing-form is found after verbs that need a preposition­al object:

I. The verbs of the first group are closely connected with a preposition:

to agree to	to care for	to get down to	to result in
to apologise for	to complain of	to grumble about	to save from
to approve of	to consist of	to insist on	to succeed in
to believe in	to dream of	to lead to	to talk of
to bother about	to end in	to long for	to think of/about

II. Verbs requiring a non-prepositional + prepositional object:

to ac­cuse somebody of	to remind somebody of
to amuse somebody with	to restrict oneself to
to ask somebody about	to save somebody from
to charge somebody with	to stop somebody from
to keep some­body from	to suspect somebody of
to persuade somebody into	to tell something about

• Did she suspect them of trying to cheat her?

The ing-form as a prepositional object is also found af­ter adjectives:

(un)accustomed to	(un)conscious of	keen on
afraid of	embarrassed at	pleased at
amused at	ex­cited about	proud of
angry with	fortunate in	responsible for
ashamed of	furious at	right in
(in)capable of	good (better) at	skilled in/at
careful about/in	happy in/at	successful in/at
careless of	interested in	sur­prised at
clever at	irritated at	upset at

• If only I were capable of doing that!

Sometimes the ing-form is used after ad­jectives: amusing, comfortable, difficult, easy, great, lovely, nice, odd, pleasant, strange, useless, wonderful, etc.:

• It won’t be easy finding our way - there’s not much moon.

• It will be rather nice seeing him again.

• It was useless arguing with Jane.