a) The same meaning: begin, continue, start, intend
- It began to snow/snowing.
- She started to laugh/laughing.
b) There is a little change in meaning: like, hate, love, prefer
- I like swimming. (refers to a situation in general, which means I enjoy it.)
- I like to see my dentist every six months. (I don’t enjoy it, but I know it is a good thing to do.)
- I like to read in bed. (refers to a more specific situation)
c) The following verbs can indicate the change in meaning: forget, remember, regret, try, stop, go on, and mean.
- infinitive: refers to the present or future; someone is/was supposed to do something
- I forgot to turn up for my maths exam yesterday.
- -ing form: refers to the past
- I won’t forget meeting you.
- infinitive: refers to the present or future; means: do not forget
- Remember to buy some bread.
- -ing form: refers to the past, and it means to recall an action that happened in the past
- I remember buying some bread.
- infinitive: we make an effort to achieve something but fail
- I tried to help him but I couldn’t. (try and fail)
- -ing form: do something as an experiment
- Try pushing the green button. (suggestion)
- infinitive: stop one action and start another, we give the reason, infinitive of purpose
- We stopped to smoke. (in order to)
- -ing form: we end an action
- He stopped smoking. (give up)
- infinitive: we move on to do something different, to add something new
- We went on to discuss the holiday.
- -ing form: continue
- He went on working all night.
- infinitive: intend
- I didn’t mean to hurt you.
- -ing form: one thing results in or involves another
- If I want to finish the report, it will mean working at least by midnight.
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