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  • Hi there. My name is Emma, and in today's video, we are going to talk about

  • something many students wonder about, and that is when we use "to" and "ing" together.

  • Sorry.

  • Okay, so for example... Yeah: "What???" Many students, when they see this, it "poof" their minds;

  • they have no idea: What is this? It goes against all the rules they've learned. So I'm going

  • to explain to you when this happens, and how we can use it. So, let's look at some examples.

  • This is the most common example of this you will see:

  • "I look forward to meeting you."

  • Notice we have our verb: "look forward", and then we have this little guy, here, "to",

  • and then we also have "ing". Okay?

  • So, in this case, it's very strange. We're going

  • to learn about why this is in a moment, but before we do that, I want to tell you some

  • of the basic rules so you can understand, first off: What am I talking about with "ing",

  • and what am I talking about with "to"?

  • So let's look at the basic rules. This is all about when you have two verbs in a sentence.

  • For example: "thank" is the first verb, and "help" is the second verb. Okay?

  • What you will notice in English, the first rule is:

  • Any time you have a preposition between the first verb and the second,

  • you're going to use "ing". A preposition is a word like "for",

  • "to", "about", "toward", "up", "down", "in", "out", all of these words that kind of tell

  • us where something is located, these are called "prepositions". So, whenever you see a preposition

  • after a verb, this next verb is going to end in "ing".

  • So our example here: "I thank you for helping me."

  • Similarly, we have our verb: "interested", "I'm interested", so this is the verb. And

  • we have a second verb: "learn". So, if we have a preposition after the first verb:

  • "I'm interested in", you're going to see that the second verb is going to end in "ing".

  • "I'm interested in learning English."

  • So we don't say: "I'm interested in to learn English."

  • Similarly, we don't say: "I thank you to help me."

  • If you have a preposition like "for",

  • "in", "out", you are going to have the second verb with "ing".

  • Okay, some verbs... These are verbs without prepositions.

  • If we have two verbs and there's

  • no preposition between them, they will either be verb with a second verb ending in "ing",

  • or a verb plus the second verb beginning in "to".

  • So let's look at some examples so you understand what I'm talking about.

  • Okay, I have here the verb "enjoy". Here's my first verb.

  • Think of a second verb we can use. Let's say "eat".

  • With the verb "enjoy", the verb that follows is always going to end

  • in "ing". "I enjoy eating.",

  • "I enjoy reading.", "I enjoy listening to music.",

  • "I enjoy shopping."

  • Okay? So, in this case, the second verb will always end in "ing".

  • We have another example, here: "I started".

  • "I started", let's think of a verb, any verb. "fish".

  • "I started fishing." So, again, this is the first verb, here's the second verb,

  • second verb ends in "ing". I en-... Or: "I started drinking.",

  • "I started eating my dinner." Okay?

  • Then we also have some verbs that you will see... Here's the first verb: "decided".

  • The second verb does not end in "ing". "I decided to", what's a verb we can use here?

  • "watch".

  • "I decided to watch TV." Okay?

  • "I want to

  • eat ice cream."

  • So, in this case, we have two verbs-so verb one, verb two; verb one, verb two

  • -the second verb begins with the word "to".

  • Now, other teachers on engVid have already covered this information.

  • What you will notice is that some verbs are always like this, some verbs are always like this,

  • and some verbs do both.

  • It's pretty much you have to memorize: When is it "ing"...? Sorry. "ing", and when

  • is it "to"? What we're really interested in today is this, this really confusing thing:

  • Why is it "ing" and "to"? All right?

  • So let's look at some more examples of this, and I

  • will tell you the rule on when we use "ing" and "to" together.

  • Okay, so I've explained to you the three rules we use when we have two verbs together. Okay?

  • Sometimes you have a verb followed by "ing", sometimes you have a verb followed by "to",

  • and in the case of prepositions, you have a verb followed by "ing". So I've taught you

  • these three rules. Now we're going to look at when we have both "ing" and "to" together.

  • Okay? So, "ing" and "to" together.

  • So in this case, we have two verbs. The first verb is: "I look forward to".

  • The second verb is: "meeting". Okay? So we have two verbs.

  • In this case, "to" is acting as a preposition.

  • Okay? So just like what we said before with "up", "down", "in", "out",

  • in this case, "to" is a preposition. This is actually a phrasal verb.

  • It's actually almost like it's the same

  • verb. "To" is a part of "look forward". You can't have: "I look forward meeting". No.

  • "To" is a part of the verb. So, in this case because it's a phrasal verb and "to" is a

  • preposition, "meeting" is going to have "ing".

  • Another way to look at this is if you look at this next example:

  • "I look forward to ice cream."

  • In this case, we only have one verb. We have "look forward to", this is the verb,

  • "ice cream". We don't have a second verb; instead, we have a noun.

  • This is fine. This is the test you can do. If "to" can be followed only by a noun,

  • then we know that it's actually

  • a part of the verb. Okay?

  • So: "I look forward to ice cream." I can do this with "to", but

  • I can't say: "I hope to ice cream." In this case, this does not work; "to" is separate,

  • so we... It's separate from "hope", so we could say instead: "I hope to eat",

  • you'd need to add a verb, here. "I need to eat ice cream."

  • So in this case, "to" is a part of it, it's a preposition;

  • in this case, when we have two verbs, "to" is separating them.

  • So they're two different cases.

  • Let's look at some more examples.

  • "You will get used to living here."

  • We have the verb "get used to",

  • it's considered like one chunk: "get used to". It's a phrasal verb. And then

  • we have our second verb.

  • "You will get used to living here." We have "to" and we also

  • have "ing". In this case, "to" is a preposition, and that's why it is followed by a verb with

  • "ing". "Get used to" means to become accustomed to. Okay? So, for example, some of my students

  • have come to Canada, and at first the cold is very terrible in the wintertime, they hate

  • the cold, but they get used to it, and then the cold is no problem; they get accustomed

  • to it. Again, just like with this, we could change this to a noun. I could say:

  • "You will get used to winter.",

  • "You will get used to English."

  • Or I can have a verb. Both are possible,

  • so we know that this is a chunk.

  • We have another example: Judge Judy.

  • "Judge Judy objects to lying."

  • "Objects" means she

  • gets angry, she does not approve; she disapproves of lying.

  • So, again, we have "to"

  • and we have "ing" together.

  • The verb is "objects to", it's one unit. And "lying" is our second verb.

  • Okay?

  • A third example: "I resorted to stealing." Okay?

  • "I resorted to stealing."

  • or "I confessed to stealing."

  • If you resort to something, it means although you didn't really want to

  • do it, you had to do it. So, for example, imagine I have a big test and I know I'm going

  • to fail, so I decide to cheat. I resorted to cheating.

  • Usually we resort to doing something bad.

  • So: "I resorted to stealing." Again, we have "to", and we have "ing".

  • The reason we have both is "resorted" and "to" are a unit;

  • they go together. They always go together,

  • so we can't say: "I resort stealing", it's always: "I resorted to stealing."

  • Same with the word "confess". If you confess to something, it means you tell someone what you did wrong.

  • Okay, so: "I confessed to stealing." So, again, just like "resorted to",

  • "confessed to", it's

  • one unit. Okay? So these words go together. "To", in this case, is a preposition,

  • "confess to" is a phrasal verb, so afterwards, "stealing" is going to end in "ing".

  • Okay, our final example:

  • "I'm opposed to living in Antarctica."

  • This means: "I'm against living in Antarctica."

  • I don't know why I'm against it. I mean, I guess I hate the cold, although

  • I love penguins. I'm going to say:

  • "I'm opposed to living in Antarctica."

  • Now, "I'm opposed to",

  • it's a unit; it goes together. It's a phrasal verb. So, this means that it's a verb

  • that always has "to" as a preposition.

  • So, because "to" is a preposition, the verb afterwards

  • is going to have "ing".

  • So: "I'm opposed to living in Antarctica.",

  • "I'm opposed to drinking and driving.",

  • "I'm opposed to doing drugs." Okay?

  • So, again, I could even get rid of this

  • and use a noun, I could say: "I'm opposed to drugs.",

  • "I'm opposed to doing drugs."

  • All right, so again, key here: Sometimes we have "to" and "ing" together between a verb.

  • We do this when we have "to" as a phrasal verb, and "to" is acting as a preposition.

  • All right, so I hope you come visit our website at www.engvid.com.

  • There, you can do a quiz to make sure that you understand this video, and that you

  • have mastered the concepts in it.

  • You'll also see a lot more examples of when we use "to" and "ing".

  • So until next time, thank you for watching and take care.

Hi there. My name is Emma, and in today's video, we are going to talk about

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