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Message board > Difference between Gerunds and infinitives as Subjects of a sentence
Difference between Gerunds and infinitives as Subjects of a sentence
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Rafa21
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Difference between Gerunds and infinitives as Subjects of a sentence
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Hello, everybody. I am new here, and I was reviewing the site which looks as a great place and where to share experience and difficulties. I have one difficulty. Probably, It seems easy, but... What �s the difference between an Infinitive and a Gerund as subject of a sentence?
All I �ve found out it �s Infinitive is used to refer an abstract concept, and Gerund is used as a noun (which I already knew). However, I think there should have another concept. If you can help me, I �ll appreciate.
Example: To drive / Driving fast across the city is dangerous.
For me, it �s Driving, but why not To drive? I have no answer  |
3 Aug 2009
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Carla Horne
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Welcome Rafa21,
An infinitive is the word To + A VERB; for example, you write, "To dance is a wonderful experience." Therefore, you are making the infinitive act as the subject of the sentence.
A gerund is a verb that ends in -ing and acts as a noun. For example, "Dancing is good for the heart." Therefore, you have a verb acting as the subject of the sentence.
Does this make sense? As for your second question, English should be efficient in that it should communicate without being too wordy. "Driving" is more efficient than "To drive," and, of course, it depends on whether there is just a shade of difference that the writer wants to convey. I would rather say, "To eat is necessary," than say, "Eating is necessary," because the first one is being stated from a more philosophical point of view. I �m not just giving a command; I want you to think about the act of eating. Please let me know if I have totally confused you.
Carla
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3 Aug 2009
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hongduyen
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I think both the infinitive and gerund can be grammatically used as a subject, but in common use, the gerund is placed at the beginning while the infinitive is often placed at the end of the clause in the extra subject structure. So we often have the sentence like these:
Driving fast across the city is dangerous. or It �s dangerous to drive fast across the city.
I hope this will help . |
3 Aug 2009
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rach81
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Hello rafa,
yes gerunds are verbs which end in -ing and that they function as nouns while in finitive are formed by adding to+verb. Infinitives may also function as subjects in a sentence and can also be placed at the beginning of the sentence. Like in the sentence, TO SEE is TO BELIEVE.
rach c",) |
3 Aug 2009
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and God Bless.