Gerunds and Infinitives for Kids
Gerunds and infinitives follow two core patterns: an -ing form acting as a noun and to plus a base verb. Children practise them through paired examples: enjoy reading, want to read, good at drawing, ready to draw. Teach each verb with its following form, helping your child learn a reusable phrase instead of guessing. Gerunds and Infinitives for Kids: -ing and to Examples and Activities covers the rules, meaning changes, practice tasks, and games.
📥 Gerunds and Infinitives for Kids
Four hands-on activities to help children master the -ing and to forms.
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The Two Core Forms
A gerund ends in -ing: reading, swimming, making. It can act as a sentence subject: “Reading helps me relax.” It also follows enjoy, finish, keep, and practise: “We enjoy cooking.” Pairing the first verb with its gerund helps children remember the pattern.
An infinitive is to plus a base verb: to read, to swim, to make. It follows want, need, hope, plan, and decide. Gerunds and Infinitives for Kids: -ing and to Examples and Activities becomes easier when each verb is learnt as a complete phrase, such as finish drawing or plan to draw.
Choosing the Form After Common Words
Many verbs take a gerund: “I enjoy painting,” “They finished eating,” “Keep trying.” Prepositions also require an -ing form: “She is good at skating,” “Thank you for helping,” “He left without saying goodbye.” Ask your child to notice the word directly before each gerund.
Other verbs take an infinitive: “We hope to visit,” “I need to practise,” “They decided to wait.” Gerunds and Infinitives for Kids: -ing and to Examples and Activities includes one important exception: modal verbs take the base form without to. We say “She can sing,” not “She can to sing.”
How Meaning Can Change
Several verbs accept both forms, but choosing a different form can change the meaning. Teach these contrasts through short scenes in which one action ends, pauses, is remembered, or is attempted for a purpose. Acting out each pair makes the contrast visible.
Verbs such as like, love, hate, start, and begin take either form: “I like reading” and “I like to read.” Teach one pattern first, then compare both forms through stories and conversation. Close meanings make these verbs useful for building confidence before introducing harder contrasts.
Activities for Different Ages
For school-age children, demonstrate an action before naming the grammar. Say “I like jumping,” jump together, then ask: “Do you like jumping or dancing?” Repeat your child’s answer as a complete sentence. This sequence connects movement, meaning, and sentence form.
Write action words on cards and sort them beside -ing or to. Place enjoy beside drawing and want beside to draw. Add an “either” group for like, love, start, and begin. Request one complete sentence after each match, then swap one card to create a fresh sentence.
With older learners, compare short situations where the form changes the meaning. Contrast ending an activity with pausing one activity to begin another. Ask the learner to describe what happened before and after each action. Across LearnLink lessons, our tutors ask learners to justify each choice instead of accepting a guess.
Quick Practice for Home or Class
Practise aloud for five minutes before assigning written answers. Read a sentence, choose the form, and say the completed sentence. Use Gerunds and Infinitives for Kids: -ing and to Examples and Activities as a prompt for this routine. Short spoken rounds reveal whether your child knows the whole pattern or recognises only the target word.
When an answer is wrong, repeat the verb and its partner as one unit: enjoy reading, not just reading. This correction gives your child a phrase to reuse in another sentence. Ask for one new example immediately: “I enjoy reading comics.”
Choose the Correct Form
Complete each sentence with the verb in brackets.
1. We enjoy ___ together. (cook)
2. I want ___ a kite. (make)
3. She is good at ___ stories. (tell)
4. They decided ___ home. (walk)
5. He finished ___ his room. (tidy)
6. You can ___ me. (help)
Answers: 1. cooking; 2. to make; 3. telling; 4. to walk; 5. tidying; 6. help.
Explain the Change in Meaning
Compare each pair: “She stopped drawing” and “She stopped to draw”; “Remember to send the message” and “I remember sending the message.”
Answers: In the first pair, she either ended her drawing or paused another activity so that she could draw. In the second pair, the infinitive refers to a task that must not be forgotten, while the gerund refers to a memory of a past action.
Common Mistakes and Clear Corrections
Children often mix patterns that sound similar. Correct “I enjoy to swim” to “I enjoy swimming.” Change “I want going outside” to “I want to go outside.” After a preposition, use the gerund: “He is interested in learning,” not “interested in to learn.” Read the corrected phrase aloud and ask your child to repeat it in a new sentence.
Do not add to after a modal verb. The correct forms are “We can play,” “You should rest,” and “They must leave.” The base verb after can, should, or must is called a bare infinitive. Colour-coding the modal and base verb can make this two-word pattern easier to see.
Not every -ing word is a gerund. In “Swimming is fun,” swimming names an activity and acts as a noun. In “She is swimming,” it forms part of the continuous verb. This distinction matters more for older learners; younger children can begin with the sentence pattern and its meaning.
- Try sorting twelve verb cards with your seven-year-old into gerund and infinitive groups.
- Practice correcting five sentences after reading one page from a familiar storybook.
- Use blue for gerunds and green for infinitives in ten example sentences.
- Ask your child to explain why each corrected verb form fits the sentence.
- Finish with a two-minute game choosing between -ing and to after common verbs.
For the rule wording, Wikipedia — English Grammar is a useful reference while the practice examples here stay adapted for children.
Frequently Asked Questions
At What Age Can Children Learn Gerunds and Infinitives?
Children meet useful patterns from age four without needing grammar terms. They can say “I like drawing” or “I want to play” as complete chunks. Labels help once a child can compare sentences and explain a choice. Use Gerunds and Infinitives for Kids: -ing and to Examples and Activities as a reference, matching each explanation to your child’s reading level.
Does a Child Need to Memorise a Long Verb List?
No. Start with familiar choices from your child’s daily speech: like, enjoy, want, need, finish, and plan. Learn each with its usual partner rather than as an isolated word — practise enjoy playing and plan to play. Add two or three patterns at a time, then revisit them in questions, stories, and family conversation.
Are All Words Ending in -ing Gerunds?
No. A gerund behaves like a noun: “Dancing is exercise” or “She enjoys dancing.” An -ing form can be part of a continuous verb: “She is dancing.” It may describe a noun too, as in “running water.” Ask what job the word performs in the sentence instead of classifying it by its ending alone.
What Should We Do When Both Forms Seem Possible?
Check whether the meaning changes. With stop, remember, and try, the form alters the message. With terms such as like, love, start, and begin, both forms work and their meanings stay close. Teach one clear example first, then compare both alternatives in context instead of presenting one as wrong.
- Start with six common verbs and teach each one with its usual form.
- Practise complete sentences aloud for five minutes at a time.
- Compare paired examples when changing the form changes the meaning.
If your child needs steady speaking practice, start small — choose a trial lesson.
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