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In the fill up, "it is difficult ____ affection on her.", I chose "showering" out of the given options. But the answer is given as "to shower".

Now I look up on net and get that we mostly use "it is difficult to do something" rather than "it is difficult doing something"

But I wonder how can we increase accuracy on such questions. Of course, one way is wide reading but that's a long term goal, but I doubt even after that one could be sure on such things. And perhaps the other way is to cram all things. But that is hardly possible given how extensive English is.

So, I wonder if there is third way where we can learn the underlying concept or rule which would hold in most cases.

After all, it is not that we always use infinitive. At times we use gerund, like "I am looking forward to seeing you" rather than "I am looking forward to see you."

So, how do we choose infinitive over gerund or vice versa?

ColleenV
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aarbee
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  • Not an easy task. You can increase your chances by learning to know what to can function as (e.g. in I went to his office and She wanted to cry, to function differently), and to know when an -ing verb acts as a noun or a verb (Compare: "Stop," she said, standing up. and Reading is fun). Then, you can study some patterns. For example, [subject + verb + it + complement + infinitive/clause], e.g. I find it difficult to show affection toward her. – Damkerng T. Sep 07 '14 at 10:46
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    You might find these tutorials helpful. – None Sep 07 '14 at 11:26
  • "It is difficult doing something" is also used with a different (but overlapping) range of meaning. –  Sep 07 '14 at 14:56
  • Congratulations. If your knowledge of English has reached the point where most of your "problems" are about guessing which more-or-less correct phrase is more common, then your English is very good. You should try to become more comfortable using English (even if it is only very good, instead of perfect.) Fluency literally means "flowingness". Once your English is very good, fluency becomes more about how easily you can express an idea, than about whether you can get a 100% score on a grammar test. – Jasper Sep 08 '14 at 05:01

2 Answers2

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That's a rather lengthy topic that whether we should use a to-infinitive or a gerund. Some verbs are followed by the to-infinitive, and some by the -ing form. Some verbs take either the to-infinitive or the -ing form. Only a good grammar book can explain such verbs. However, there is a fixed rule that if there is an adjective + verb, we should follow the adjective + to-infinitive pattern. A few examples are as follows:

  1. It's important to do it now.
  2. It's lovely to see you.
  3. I am delighted to see you.
  4. It's difficult to do this work.
Khan
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As others have said, it may be impossible to give you a simple, general rule. I'll try to answer for the specific examples you have given, though.

"It is difficult ____ affection on her."

The more natural choice would be to shower. It would be odd to say showering, but it wouldn't be entirely wrong, though. Why? I can't say exactly. To further illustrate the difficulty in choosing, I give the following examples (using a more literal sense of shower), three of which are correct:

  • It will be difficult undressing and showering with her. (Correct)
  • It will be difficult to undress and shower with her. (Correct)
  • It will be difficult for me to undress and shower with her. (Correct)
  • It will be difficult for me undressing and showering with her. (Questionable)

Sorry to answer a question without an explanation, but it isn't easy to explain. You may have better luck asking a question on English Language & Usage about this specific example.

"I am looking forward to ____ you."

This is easier to explain. Looking is an intransitive verb that takes a prepositional phrase as its complement. For example,

I am looking forward to the weekend.

Therefore, to is being used as a preposition, not as part of an infinitive. The preposition requires a noun phrase as its complement, like the weekend. The gerund suits that purpose, while the verb see does not.

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