Question 1

How many gerund and infinitive patterns do I need to know for B2 level?

Accepted Answer

For B2 level, you need to master approximately 50-60 common verb patterns plus several structural patterns. This includes about 20 gerund-only verbs (enjoy, finish, avoid, suggest, consider, keep, imagine, recommend, miss, admit, deny, risk, delay, mind, practise, quit, recall, resist, tolerate, discuss), about 20 infinitive-only verbs (want, decide, hope, offer, promise, agree, refuse, learn, manage, pretend, afford, claim, deserve, fail, hesitate, prepare, seem, appear, tend, threaten), and 8-10 meaning-change verbs (remember, forget, stop, try, regret, go on, mean, need). Add structural patterns: preposition + gerund, verb + object + infinitive, too/enough + infinitive, and special expressions.

Question 2

What mistakes cost the most marks in Cambridge exams?

Accepted Answer

The highest-cost errors are: using infinitives after "suggest" ("I suggest to try" is wrong — say "I suggest trying"), confusing "used to do" (past habit) with "be used to doing" (accustomed), using infinitives after prepositions ("interested in to learn" is wrong — say "interested in learning"), and incorrect meaning-change verb forms ("I stopped to smoke" vs "I stopped smoking" have opposite meanings). Other common errors include adding "to" after "make," "let," and "have" ("make someone to do" is wrong — say "make someone do") and using gerunds after "would rather" or "had better" (these take bare infinitives). These errors appear in every exam session.

Question 3

What are the biggest differences between gerund and infinitive rules at B1 versus C1 level?

Accepted Answer

At B1, learners focus on memorising common verb patterns — knowing that "enjoy" takes a gerund and "want" takes an infinitive is sufficient. By C1, the system becomes far more nuanced. You must master meaning-change verbs where the gerund and infinitive produce different meanings (e.g., "remember doing" vs "remember to do"), perfect gerunds and infinitives for expressing earlier time references ("He denied having taken it"), and complex patterns after prepositions and adjectives. C1 exams like Cambridge Advanced also test passive infinitives ("to be promoted") and continuous forms ("to be working"), which rarely appear at B1. The leap from B1 to C1 is essentially moving from pattern memorisation to understanding how form changes meaning.

Gerunds and Infinitives: Final Test

Quick Rule

All 20 questions

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Gerunds and Infinitives Error Correction

Common Gerund and Infinitive Verbs

Preposition + Gerund

-ed vs -ing Adjectives

Conditionals

Present Perfect