TOEIC Link Grammar — Gerunds and Infinitives: Verb Complement Selection, Meaning Shifts, and Trap Patterns in Reading Parts 5 and 6

TOEIC Link Reading Parts 5 (incomplete sentences) and 6 (text completion) include a category of items that ask candidates to select either a gerund (the -ing form of a verb functioning as a noun) or an infinitive (the to + base form) as the complement of a main verb, an adjective, or a preposition. The category appears on roughly eight to twelve items per administration, which corresponds to twelve to eighteen percent of the reading module's grammar surface area. Score-band data from internal practice corpora indicates that candidates in the 15-to-20 band score roughly forty percent on the category, while candidates in the 25-to-30 band score above eighty-five percent — the gap is one of the most reliable discriminators of overall reading band.

The category is hard for two reasons. First, the choice between gerund and infinitive depends on the identity of the verb (or adjective, or preposition) that the form complements, and there is no single rule that derives the choice from the meaning. Native speakers rely on memorized verb-complement classes, and TOEIC Link items are constructed assuming the candidate has memorized the same classes. Second, a small but high-frequency subset of verbs accepts both gerund and infinitive complements with different meanings, and TOEIC Link exploits the meaning shift as a distractor pattern. The combination produces items that are easy to mis-answer through surface plausibility and hard to mis-answer through systematic study.

This guide describes the four verb-complement classes that organize the category, the seven meaning-shifting verbs that recur on the test, and the four trap patterns that account for the majority of distractor errors. For related grammar topics, see the guides on verb tenses, modal verbs, and subject-verb agreement.

Why verb-complement selection is testable

A naive view of complement selection treats gerund-versus-infinitive as a stylistic choice — the writer picks the form that sounds better and either form is acceptable. The view is wrong in two respects.

Respect 1 — most verbs lexically specify their complement. English has a class of verbs that accept only gerund complements (for example, enjoy, finish, avoid, suggest, consider) and a class that accepts only infinitive complements (for example, decide, plan, want, hope, agree). The selection is a lexical property of the matrix verb, not a stylistic choice, and using the wrong form produces an ungrammatical sentence. The TOEIC Link grader treats gerund-with-infinitive-only verbs and infinitive-with-gerund-only verbs as errors with equal severity.

Respect 2 — a small class of verbs accepts both with meaning shifts. A high-frequency subset including remember, forget, try, stop, regret, mean, and go on accepts both gerund and infinitive complements, but the two complements correspond to systematically different meanings. The verb stop, for example, takes a gerund when the meaning is "cease an activity" (the manager stopped attending the meetings) and takes an infinitive when the meaning is "pause in order to do something else" (the manager stopped to attend the meetings). The meaning shift is exploited in TOEIC Link distractor construction — the distractor answer is grammatical but produces the wrong meaning for the context.

The TOEIC Link test grader is calibrated against both respects. Items on the test are constructed so that the surrounding context disambiguates which form is correct, and candidates who guess on surface plausibility rather than on lexical-class memorization will fail systematically.

The four verb-complement classes

The verbs that govern gerund-versus-infinitive selection on TOEIC Link can be organized into four classes. Memorizing the class membership of the highest-frequency verbs in each class is the single most valuable preparation activity for the category.

Class 1 — verbs that take only gerund complements

The verbs in Class 1 accept a gerund complement and reject an infinitive complement. The class contains roughly thirty high-frequency verbs that recur on TOEIC Link.

The core members of the class include admit, anticipate, appreciate, avoid, consider, delay, deny, discuss, enjoy, finish, imagine, involve, mention, mind, miss, postpone, practice, recommend, resent, resist, risk, suggest, and tolerate. The class also includes the phrasal verbs give up, keep on, put off, and carry on.

A useful semantic heuristic — though not a rule — is that Class 1 verbs often involve mental engagement with an ongoing or completed activity. Verbs of enjoyment, avoidance, completion, recommendation, and admission tend to fall in Class 1. The heuristic is not reliable enough to substitute for memorization, but it can serve as a fallback when memory fails.

The diagnostic example is the verb suggest. The sentence "the manager suggested rescheduling the meeting" is grammatical; "the manager suggested to reschedule the meeting" is not. TOEIC Link items routinely include "to reschedule" as a distractor answer, and candidates who select it on the basis of surface plausibility are systematically wrong.

Class 2 — verbs that take only infinitive complements

The verbs in Class 2 accept an infinitive complement and reject a gerund complement. The class contains roughly forty high-frequency verbs.

The core members include agree, appear, arrange, ask, claim, decide, demand, deserve, expect, fail, hesitate, hope, intend, learn, manage, need, offer, plan, prepare, pretend, promise, refuse, seem, swear, tend, threaten, wait, want, and wish.

A useful semantic heuristic is that Class 2 verbs often involve future-directed intention or commitment. Verbs of planning, agreeing, deciding, hoping, and promising tend to fall in Class 2. As with Class 1, the heuristic is fallback-quality rather than rule-quality.

The diagnostic example is the verb decide. The sentence "the board decided to postpone the launch" is grammatical; "the board decided postponing the launch" is not. TOEIC Link items routinely include "postponing" as a distractor, and the distractor is constructed to be lexically plausible because "postpone" itself is a Class 1 gerund-taking verb.

Class 3 — verbs that take both with no meaning shift

The verbs in Class 3 accept both gerund and infinitive complements with no significant change in meaning. The class is small and contains roughly fifteen verbs.

The core members include begin, continue, start, prefer, like, love, hate, propose, and attempt. With these verbs, both complements are grammatical and the choice is genuinely stylistic.

TOEIC Link does not test Class 3 verbs as standalone selection items, because either complement would be a defensible answer. However, Class 3 verbs do appear in items where the actual selection target is a different grammatical feature — for example, an adverb position or a preposition choice — and candidates should not be distracted by the gerund-or-infinitive variation in a Class 3 sentence stem.

Class 4 — verbs that take both with meaning shifts

The verbs in Class 4 accept both gerund and infinitive complements, but the two complements correspond to systematically different meanings. The class is the most heavily tested on TOEIC Link, because it produces the cleanest distractor pairs — both answer choices are grammatical, and only the contextual meaning disambiguates.

The seven core members of Class 4 are remember, forget, try, stop, regret, mean, and go on. Each is discussed in detail in the next section.

The seven meaning-shifting verbs

Remember

Remember + gerund means "recall a past action that was done." The sentence "I remember submitting the report" means that the speaker has a memory of the past event of submitting the report.

Remember + infinitive means "not forget to do a future action." The sentence "I remembered to submit the report" means that the speaker recalled an obligation in time to fulfill it. TOEIC Link items typically establish a tense and aspect context (past completion vs. obligation fulfillment) that disambiguates which meaning is correct.

Forget

Forget + gerund means "fail to recall a past action that was done," typically with a negative subject. The sentence "I will never forget visiting the headquarters" means that the past visit produced a memorable impression.

Forget + infinitive means "fail to do a future action because of failure to recall the obligation." The sentence "I forgot to submit the report" means that the speaker did not submit the report because the obligation slipped from memory. The forget-infinitive pattern is the more common pattern on TOEIC Link, and distractors are constructed using the gerund form.

Try

Try + gerund means "experiment with an action to see whether it produces a desired result." The sentence "the team tried using the new tool" means that the team experimented with the tool, perhaps to evaluate its effectiveness.

Try + infinitive means "attempt an action, with the implication that the attempt may fail." The sentence "the team tried to use the new tool" means that the team made an effort to use the tool, possibly without success. The distinction is subtle in casual speech but is enforced on TOEIC Link items, where the surrounding context establishes whether the meaning is experimentation or attempted execution.

Stop

Stop + gerund means "cease an ongoing activity." The sentence "the manager stopped attending the meetings" means that the manager terminated a practice of attendance.

Stop + infinitive means "pause one activity in order to begin another." The sentence "the manager stopped to attend the meeting" means that the manager interrupted a different activity to participate in the meeting. The two meanings are opposed — one terminates the attendance, the other initiates it — and the contextual disambiguation in TOEIC Link items is usually unambiguous.

Regret

Regret + gerund means "feel sorry about a past action." The sentence "the company regrets cancelling the partnership" means that the cancellation is a past event that the company now wishes had not happened.

Regret + infinitive is restricted to verbs of communication (inform, tell, say, announce) and means "convey unwelcome news." The sentence "we regret to inform you that the position has been filled" is a formal announcement formula. TOEIC Link uses the regret-infinitive pattern in business-correspondence contexts in Part 6.

Mean

Mean + gerund means "involve as a consequence." The sentence "the new schedule means working longer hours" means that the schedule has the consequence of longer hours.

Mean + infinitive means "intend to do something." The sentence "I meant to call you yesterday" means that the speaker had the intention but did not execute. The two meanings are completely distinct, and the contextual subject (an inanimate schedule vs. a personal pronoun) usually disambiguates.

Go on

Go on + gerund means "continue an activity that was already in progress." The sentence "the speaker went on talking about the budget" means that the talking activity continued without interruption.

Go on + infinitive means "proceed to a next activity." The sentence "the speaker went on to talk about the budget" means that the speaker finished a prior topic and started a new one. The contextual cue is whether the activity is a continuation or a transition.

The four trap patterns

Trap 1 — surface plausibility of the wrong form

The first trap is the construction of items where the wrong form is more frequent in everyday speech than the correct form. Candidates who guess on surface plausibility rather than on lexical class will systematically prefer the more frequent form, and the more frequent form is the trap.

The remediation is to memorize the Class 1 and Class 2 verb lists and to verify the matrix verb's class membership before selecting a complement.

Trap 2 — preposition-governed gerunds

The second trap is the construction of items where the gerund is governed not by a verb but by a preposition. Prepositions take gerund complements exclusively in English — never infinitives. Phrases like "interested in working," "looking forward to meeting," and "responsible for delivering" all use gerunds because the underlined word is a preposition.

The trap pattern places a Class 2 verb in the sentence stem and a preposition immediately before the blank, such that the candidate's memory of the verb's class is triggered but the actual governing word is the preposition. The remediation is to identify the word immediately preceding the blank — if it is a preposition, the answer is a gerund regardless of any verb earlier in the sentence.

Trap 3 — Class 4 verb without context disambiguation

The third trap is the construction of items where a Class 4 meaning-shifting verb appears in a sentence stem that is short enough to be ambiguous on first reading. The candidate selects the wrong form because the disambiguating context appears later in the sentence than the blank.

The remediation is to read the entire sentence — including content after the blank — before selecting a complement when the matrix verb is one of the seven Class 4 verbs.

Trap 4 — adjective complements

The fourth trap is the construction of items where the complement is governed not by a verb but by an adjective. Some adjectives lexically specify gerund complements (for example, busy in "busy preparing the report") and others specify infinitive complements (for example, happy in "happy to help"). The class membership of common adjectives must be memorized separately from the verb classes.

The remediation is to recognize that adjective complements follow the same class-based selection rules as verb complements and to study the high-frequency adjective lists for Classes 1 and 2 separately.

Practice and remediation

Candidates who score below sixty percent on the gerund-and-infinitive category should focus practice on three drills.

Drill 1 — flashcard the Class 1 and Class 2 verb lists. Use spaced repetition to commit the top thirty verbs of each class to retrieval. The drill is rote but the payoff is high — roughly half of the category's items are decidable by verb class alone.

Drill 2 — practice Class 4 meaning shifts. For each of the seven meaning-shifting verbs, construct paired sentences (one gerund, one infinitive) that exemplify the meaning shift. The drill builds the contextual disambiguation reflex.

Drill 3 — scan for prepositions before the blank. Train the habit of identifying the word immediately preceding the blank before selecting a complement. The drill defuses Trap 2 and Trap 4.

Candidates who complete the three drills typically gain four to six items in the reading section, which is roughly half a score band. Combined with the strategies in the reading strategies by question type guide, the gain compounds into a full band over a four-to-six-week preparation cycle.

Summary

Gerund-versus-infinitive selection is a high-discriminator category in TOEIC Link Reading Parts 5 and 6. The category is decidable by memorization of the four verb-complement classes plus the seven meaning-shifting verbs, supplemented by the four trap-pattern awareness rules. Candidates who treat the category as a stylistic choice will score poorly; candidates who treat it as a lexical-property memorization task will score well. The preparation cost is moderate (twenty to thirty hours over four weeks), and the score-band payoff is reliable.