I read english tests daily in order to broaden my vocabulary and why not, refresh my grammatical skills. I have found sometimes the structure 'to + verb with -ing form' I thought that 'to' must be followed by the basic form of the verb. So when am I allowed to use to + -ing form? And what does to + ing form mean?
You may have seen expressions like the following:
I look forward to seeing you soon
I object to buying food from that shop
In these cases, the main verbs are the phrasal verbs "look forward to" and "object to".
"look forward to " has two "particles" - "forward" and "to".
"object to" has just one particle - "to"
So in these verbs, "to" remains attached to the main verb and is not part of the following verb (gerund or infinitive). If a phrasal verb with "to" is followed by another verb, it will be in the gerund. Otherwise you would have strange sentences like : "I look forward to to see you."
TO can be part of the infinitve ( to do, to see), but TO is also a PREPOSITION (like in/for/about/on etc.):
For example:
We decided to go out.
Would you like to meet me tomorrow?
When to is a preposition and it is followed by a verb, you must say to -ing:
I am interested in meeting you (because interested is always followed by in, and because in is a preposition, you punt the verb with the ing form)
I prefer driving to travelling by train (not to travel)
I am looking forward to seeing you (not to see you)
I always avoid going out alone (not to go out alone).
The best way to avoid mistakes is to check the dictionary, the following tells you if the verb is followed by to + infinitive or + ing or object and so on:
Thank you :)
