As you like it By Pauline Seale and Virginie Vaulot

Like + gerundinfinitive

What would you say

I like to finish work early

I like finishing work early

Irsquod like to finish work early

Irsquod like finishing work early

Like is different from most of the other verbs in

its semantic field in being used with both the

infinitive and the gerund as complements

Is there a difference in meaning between

Like to do and Like doing

What do specialists say

What do the corpora reveal

What are language learners taught

Is there a distinction between American and British usage

Is there different usage in written and spoken texts

A selection of Grammar books on usage

bull The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Rodney Huddleston University of Queensland Geoffrey K Pullum University of Edinburgh infinitive = change gerund-participle = actuality enjoyment bull A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (General Grammar) 2nd Revised edition

Edition by Randolph Quirk Sidney Greenbaum Geoffrey Leech Jan Svartvik the gerund-participle (-ing form) - pleasure is derived from the action itself the infinitive (to form) - preference is being expressed for choosing to perform the action or

the idea of the action bull Practical English Usage by Michael Swann To talk about enjoying activities in general you can use like + ing (more common in Br Eng) or like to To talk about enjoying something on one occasion we use like + ing eg I really liked working with him

on his boat last week Like + infinitive for choices and habits bull Grammaire Explicative de lrsquoanglais Paul Larreya amp Claude Riviegravere To + V donne au verbe like une valeur proche du sens de vouloir ou de choisir Le verbe didnrsquot like exprime un regard purement exteacuterieur sur lrsquoaction exprimeacutee dans la subordonneacutee

Le choix entre les deux constructions nrsquoest pas toujours aussi libre qursquoon pourrait le pensait eg I didnrsquot like to disturb you I didnrsquot like disturbing you

What would you say

I like to finish work early

I like finishing work early

Irsquod like to finish work early

Irsquod like finishing work early

Like is different from most of the other verbs in

its semantic field in being used with both the

infinitive and the gerund as complements

Is there a difference in meaning between

Like to do and Like doing

What do specialists say

What do the corpora reveal

What are language learners taught

Is there a distinction between American and British usage

Is there different usage in written and spoken texts

A selection of Grammar books on usage

bull The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Rodney Huddleston University of Queensland Geoffrey K Pullum University of Edinburgh infinitive = change gerund-participle = actuality enjoyment bull A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (General Grammar) 2nd Revised edition

Edition by Randolph Quirk Sidney Greenbaum Geoffrey Leech Jan Svartvik the gerund-participle (-ing form) - pleasure is derived from the action itself the infinitive (to form) - preference is being expressed for choosing to perform the action or

the idea of the action bull Practical English Usage by Michael Swann To talk about enjoying activities in general you can use like + ing (more common in Br Eng) or like to To talk about enjoying something on one occasion we use like + ing eg I really liked working with him

on his boat last week Like + infinitive for choices and habits bull Grammaire Explicative de lrsquoanglais Paul Larreya amp Claude Riviegravere To + V donne au verbe like une valeur proche du sens de vouloir ou de choisir Le verbe didnrsquot like exprime un regard purement exteacuterieur sur lrsquoaction exprimeacutee dans la subordonneacutee

Le choix entre les deux constructions nrsquoest pas toujours aussi libre qursquoon pourrait le pensait eg I didnrsquot like to disturb you I didnrsquot like disturbing you

Like is different from most of the other verbs in

its semantic field in being used with both the

infinitive and the gerund as complements

Is there a difference in meaning between

Like to do and Like doing

What do specialists say

What do the corpora reveal

What are language learners taught

Is there a distinction between American and British usage

Is there different usage in written and spoken texts

A selection of Grammar books on usage

bull The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Rodney Huddleston University of Queensland Geoffrey K Pullum University of Edinburgh infinitive = change gerund-participle = actuality enjoyment bull A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (General Grammar) 2nd Revised edition

Edition by Randolph Quirk Sidney Greenbaum Geoffrey Leech Jan Svartvik the gerund-participle (-ing form) - pleasure is derived from the action itself the infinitive (to form) - preference is being expressed for choosing to perform the action or

the idea of the action bull Practical English Usage by Michael Swann To talk about enjoying activities in general you can use like + ing (more common in Br Eng) or like to To talk about enjoying something on one occasion we use like + ing eg I really liked working with him

on his boat last week Like + infinitive for choices and habits bull Grammaire Explicative de lrsquoanglais Paul Larreya amp Claude Riviegravere To + V donne au verbe like une valeur proche du sens de vouloir ou de choisir Le verbe didnrsquot like exprime un regard purement exteacuterieur sur lrsquoaction exprimeacutee dans la subordonneacutee

Le choix entre les deux constructions nrsquoest pas toujours aussi libre qursquoon pourrait le pensait eg I didnrsquot like to disturb you I didnrsquot like disturbing you

A selection of Grammar books on usage

bull The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Rodney Huddleston University of Queensland Geoffrey K Pullum University of Edinburgh infinitive = change gerund-participle = actuality enjoyment bull A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (General Grammar) 2nd Revised edition

Edition by Randolph Quirk Sidney Greenbaum Geoffrey Leech Jan Svartvik the gerund-participle (-ing form) - pleasure is derived from the action itself the infinitive (to form) - preference is being expressed for choosing to perform the action or

the idea of the action bull Practical English Usage by Michael Swann To talk about enjoying activities in general you can use like + ing (more common in Br Eng) or like to To talk about enjoying something on one occasion we use like + ing eg I really liked working with him

on his boat last week Like + infinitive for choices and habits bull Grammaire Explicative de lrsquoanglais Paul Larreya amp Claude Riviegravere To + V donne au verbe like une valeur proche du sens de vouloir ou de choisir Le verbe didnrsquot like exprime un regard purement exteacuterieur sur lrsquoaction exprimeacutee dans la subordonneacutee

Le choix entre les deux constructions nrsquoest pas toujours aussi libre qursquoon pourrait le pensait eg I didnrsquot like to disturb you I didnrsquot like disturbing you

Distinction between infinitive and gerund in linguistic research

Researchers have argued that the distinction between using the infinitive and the gerund after a verb is defined in terms of

a) genericity or specificity

b) simultaneity and futurity

(cf Wierbicka Langacker Dixon Verspoor)

Semantic selection rules devised by other linguistic researchers

Like (desire) + infinitive

I like to visit her

Like (enjoyment) + gerund

I like visiting her

Would Like (conditional unfulfilled desire) + infinitive Irsquod like to visit her

Patrick J Duffley VERBS OF LIKING WITH THE INFINITIVE AND THE GERUND

the meaning of the

complement forms

the function of the

complement in the

sentence

the meaning of the main verb (like)

The gerund evokes whole interiority of

the event the infinitive with to the notion of movement towards realising the

event

The gerund is a direct object of the verb The infinitive is a

ldquoprepositional phraserdquo

Habitual preference (infinitive)

or enjoyment (gerund)

Examples from Duffleyrsquos research

bull We always like to keep the ball as much as possible against Denver because they have such an explosive attack (Brown University Corpus A12 1450)

bull I like to get as much as possible of this planting done in November while the temperature of the soil is still fairly high for this gives the roots a reasonable chance to get themselves established (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus E08 69)

bull During late childhood boys like to tease jostle and talk smart to girls (Brown University Corpus J47 0740)

bull In the bedrooms the children were preparing to sleep He liked to watch them he wanted children now (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus K16 191)

bull Find out what you like to do most and really give it a whirl (Brown University Corpus F06 0490)

bull A fairly common experience for us is the wife who finds her husband staying out more and more He may be interested in another woman or just like being out with the boys (Brown University Corpus C17 1100)

bull I never liked going straight into an examination with patients - it relaxes them Ive always thought to chat first (Brown University Corpus P19 0760)

bull Now just a minute young lady His face reddened darkening the welts and bruises and emphasizing the purple bulge under the right eye I dont like being called a spylsquo (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus N07 134)

bull Even more simply test your own reactions to different situations There are some which bring on an almost immediate feeling of tiredness - such as when your wife mentions the washing-up - while others if they refer to something you like doing bring a veritable surge of energy (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus D06 83)

it is perfectly conceivable for someone to like to get up early in the morning and yet not to like getting uprdquo Universiteacute Laval Quebec PATRICK J DUFFLEY

Are you confused

Corpora search results

Using Antconc with tagged Brown Corpus (American Englishwritten texts)

Colligation search with wildcards Like to|like ing

Total 30 hits

26 hits with infinitive

4 hits with gerund

Similar results produced with Lob corpus (British English)

21 hits in total 4 hits with gerundnoun complement

6 cluster groups liked to likes to liked burdening liked during liked nothing likes wearing

Like

1 2

gerund

infinitive

Brown

BNC search results Written and Spoken texts

bull like ing returned 472 hits in 340 different texts (98313429 words [4048 texts] frequency 48 instances per million words)

bull like to returned 1623 hits in 863 different texts (98313429 words [4048 texts] frequency 1651 instances per million words)

bull Some examples were not with the gerund eg everything nothing Stirling

bull Examples with modal before ldquolikerdquo included in search results wouldshould (have) like (d) to

bull Age distribution in spoken texts showed similar results

Like

1 2

BNC results

+ gerund

+ infinitive

Some examples are about an occasion in the past the speaker is referring to the whole action

Examples of modal construction influences the use of the infinitive

Could the infinitive be replaced with the gerund =

Distribution of verbs before and after like + infinitive

have 460620 36902

would 245349 19656

think 88395 7082

call 12935 1036

talk 12234 0980

be 649884 52065

watch 6424 0515

see 114941 9208

hear 13032 1044

play 14519 1163

keep 26680 2137

say 66463 5325

d 61585 4934

go 84664 6783

pretend 1176 0094

eat 7258 0581

seen 36316 2909

I like to + infinitive I like + v-ing

688 results 300 results

Think

See

Be

Have

BNC-WEB

This example has like in both the gerund and the infinitive

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) Search Like + gerund (like ing)

Results showed a slight rise in the use of the gerund since 1990

COCA Like + infinitive liked to 5555 tokenslikes to 5311

The results show a slight decline in the use of the infinitive but this complement outweighs the gerund by far The results include ldquowouldrsquod likerdquo

Adverb search with like + infinitive (BNC)

The high frequency of always confirms the idea of habitual preference suggested by like + inf

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

Semantic selection rules devised by other linguistic researchers

Like (desire) + infinitive

I like to visit her

Like (enjoyment) + gerund

I like visiting her

Would Like (conditional unfulfilled desire) + infinitive Irsquod like to visit her

Patrick J Duffley VERBS OF LIKING WITH THE INFINITIVE AND THE GERUND

the meaning of the

complement forms

the function of the

complement in the

sentence

the meaning of the main verb (like)

The gerund evokes whole interiority of

the event the infinitive with to the notion of movement towards realising the

event

The gerund is a direct object of the verb The infinitive is a

ldquoprepositional phraserdquo

Habitual preference (infinitive)

or enjoyment (gerund)

Examples from Duffleyrsquos research

bull We always like to keep the ball as much as possible against Denver because they have such an explosive attack (Brown University Corpus A12 1450)

bull I like to get as much as possible of this planting done in November while the temperature of the soil is still fairly high for this gives the roots a reasonable chance to get themselves established (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus E08 69)

bull During late childhood boys like to tease jostle and talk smart to girls (Brown University Corpus J47 0740)

bull In the bedrooms the children were preparing to sleep He liked to watch them he wanted children now (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus K16 191)

bull Find out what you like to do most and really give it a whirl (Brown University Corpus F06 0490)

bull A fairly common experience for us is the wife who finds her husband staying out more and more He may be interested in another woman or just like being out with the boys (Brown University Corpus C17 1100)

bull I never liked going straight into an examination with patients - it relaxes them Ive always thought to chat first (Brown University Corpus P19 0760)

bull Now just a minute young lady His face reddened darkening the welts and bruises and emphasizing the purple bulge under the right eye I dont like being called a spylsquo (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus N07 134)

bull Even more simply test your own reactions to different situations There are some which bring on an almost immediate feeling of tiredness - such as when your wife mentions the washing-up - while others if they refer to something you like doing bring a veritable surge of energy (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus D06 83)

it is perfectly conceivable for someone to like to get up early in the morning and yet not to like getting uprdquo Universiteacute Laval Quebec PATRICK J DUFFLEY

Are you confused

Corpora search results

Using Antconc with tagged Brown Corpus (American Englishwritten texts)

Colligation search with wildcards Like to|like ing

Total 30 hits

26 hits with infinitive

4 hits with gerund

Similar results produced with Lob corpus (British English)

21 hits in total 4 hits with gerundnoun complement

6 cluster groups liked to likes to liked burdening liked during liked nothing likes wearing

Like

1 2

gerund

infinitive

Brown

BNC search results Written and Spoken texts

bull like ing returned 472 hits in 340 different texts (98313429 words [4048 texts] frequency 48 instances per million words)

bull like to returned 1623 hits in 863 different texts (98313429 words [4048 texts] frequency 1651 instances per million words)

bull Some examples were not with the gerund eg everything nothing Stirling

bull Examples with modal before ldquolikerdquo included in search results wouldshould (have) like (d) to

bull Age distribution in spoken texts showed similar results

Like

1 2

BNC results

+ gerund

+ infinitive

Some examples are about an occasion in the past the speaker is referring to the whole action

Examples of modal construction influences the use of the infinitive

Could the infinitive be replaced with the gerund =

Distribution of verbs before and after like + infinitive

have 460620 36902

would 245349 19656

think 88395 7082

call 12935 1036

talk 12234 0980

be 649884 52065

watch 6424 0515

see 114941 9208

hear 13032 1044

play 14519 1163

keep 26680 2137

say 66463 5325

d 61585 4934

go 84664 6783

pretend 1176 0094

eat 7258 0581

seen 36316 2909

I like to + infinitive I like + v-ing

688 results 300 results

Think

See

Be

Have

BNC-WEB

This example has like in both the gerund and the infinitive

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) Search Like + gerund (like ing)

Results showed a slight rise in the use of the gerund since 1990

COCA Like + infinitive liked to 5555 tokenslikes to 5311

The results show a slight decline in the use of the infinitive but this complement outweighs the gerund by far The results include ldquowouldrsquod likerdquo

Adverb search with like + infinitive (BNC)

The high frequency of always confirms the idea of habitual preference suggested by like + inf

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

Patrick J Duffley VERBS OF LIKING WITH THE INFINITIVE AND THE GERUND

the meaning of the

complement forms

the function of the

complement in the

sentence

the meaning of the main verb (like)

The gerund evokes whole interiority of

the event the infinitive with to the notion of movement towards realising the

event

The gerund is a direct object of the verb The infinitive is a

ldquoprepositional phraserdquo

Habitual preference (infinitive)

or enjoyment (gerund)

Examples from Duffleyrsquos research

bull We always like to keep the ball as much as possible against Denver because they have such an explosive attack (Brown University Corpus A12 1450)

bull I like to get as much as possible of this planting done in November while the temperature of the soil is still fairly high for this gives the roots a reasonable chance to get themselves established (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus E08 69)

bull During late childhood boys like to tease jostle and talk smart to girls (Brown University Corpus J47 0740)

bull In the bedrooms the children were preparing to sleep He liked to watch them he wanted children now (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus K16 191)

bull Find out what you like to do most and really give it a whirl (Brown University Corpus F06 0490)

bull A fairly common experience for us is the wife who finds her husband staying out more and more He may be interested in another woman or just like being out with the boys (Brown University Corpus C17 1100)

bull I never liked going straight into an examination with patients - it relaxes them Ive always thought to chat first (Brown University Corpus P19 0760)

bull Now just a minute young lady His face reddened darkening the welts and bruises and emphasizing the purple bulge under the right eye I dont like being called a spylsquo (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus N07 134)

bull Even more simply test your own reactions to different situations There are some which bring on an almost immediate feeling of tiredness - such as when your wife mentions the washing-up - while others if they refer to something you like doing bring a veritable surge of energy (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus D06 83)

it is perfectly conceivable for someone to like to get up early in the morning and yet not to like getting uprdquo Universiteacute Laval Quebec PATRICK J DUFFLEY

Are you confused

Corpora search results

Using Antconc with tagged Brown Corpus (American Englishwritten texts)

Colligation search with wildcards Like to|like ing

Total 30 hits

26 hits with infinitive

4 hits with gerund

Similar results produced with Lob corpus (British English)

21 hits in total 4 hits with gerundnoun complement

6 cluster groups liked to likes to liked burdening liked during liked nothing likes wearing

Like

1 2

gerund

infinitive

Brown

BNC search results Written and Spoken texts

bull like ing returned 472 hits in 340 different texts (98313429 words [4048 texts] frequency 48 instances per million words)

bull like to returned 1623 hits in 863 different texts (98313429 words [4048 texts] frequency 1651 instances per million words)

bull Some examples were not with the gerund eg everything nothing Stirling

bull Examples with modal before ldquolikerdquo included in search results wouldshould (have) like (d) to

bull Age distribution in spoken texts showed similar results

Like

1 2

BNC results

+ gerund

+ infinitive

Some examples are about an occasion in the past the speaker is referring to the whole action

Examples of modal construction influences the use of the infinitive

Could the infinitive be replaced with the gerund =

Distribution of verbs before and after like + infinitive

have 460620 36902

would 245349 19656

think 88395 7082

call 12935 1036

talk 12234 0980

be 649884 52065

watch 6424 0515

see 114941 9208

hear 13032 1044

play 14519 1163

keep 26680 2137

say 66463 5325

d 61585 4934

go 84664 6783

pretend 1176 0094

eat 7258 0581

seen 36316 2909

I like to + infinitive I like + v-ing

688 results 300 results

Think

See

Be

Have

BNC-WEB

This example has like in both the gerund and the infinitive

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) Search Like + gerund (like ing)

Results showed a slight rise in the use of the gerund since 1990

COCA Like + infinitive liked to 5555 tokenslikes to 5311

The results show a slight decline in the use of the infinitive but this complement outweighs the gerund by far The results include ldquowouldrsquod likerdquo

Adverb search with like + infinitive (BNC)

The high frequency of always confirms the idea of habitual preference suggested by like + inf

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

Examples from Duffleyrsquos research

bull We always like to keep the ball as much as possible against Denver because they have such an explosive attack (Brown University Corpus A12 1450)

bull I like to get as much as possible of this planting done in November while the temperature of the soil is still fairly high for this gives the roots a reasonable chance to get themselves established (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus E08 69)

bull During late childhood boys like to tease jostle and talk smart to girls (Brown University Corpus J47 0740)

bull In the bedrooms the children were preparing to sleep He liked to watch them he wanted children now (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus K16 191)

bull Find out what you like to do most and really give it a whirl (Brown University Corpus F06 0490)

bull A fairly common experience for us is the wife who finds her husband staying out more and more He may be interested in another woman or just like being out with the boys (Brown University Corpus C17 1100)

bull I never liked going straight into an examination with patients - it relaxes them Ive always thought to chat first (Brown University Corpus P19 0760)

bull Now just a minute young lady His face reddened darkening the welts and bruises and emphasizing the purple bulge under the right eye I dont like being called a spylsquo (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus N07 134)

bull Even more simply test your own reactions to different situations There are some which bring on an almost immediate feeling of tiredness - such as when your wife mentions the washing-up - while others if they refer to something you like doing bring a veritable surge of energy (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus D06 83)

it is perfectly conceivable for someone to like to get up early in the morning and yet not to like getting uprdquo Universiteacute Laval Quebec PATRICK J DUFFLEY

Are you confused

Corpora search results

Using Antconc with tagged Brown Corpus (American Englishwritten texts)

Colligation search with wildcards Like to|like ing

Total 30 hits

26 hits with infinitive

4 hits with gerund

Similar results produced with Lob corpus (British English)

21 hits in total 4 hits with gerundnoun complement

6 cluster groups liked to likes to liked burdening liked during liked nothing likes wearing

Like

1 2

gerund

infinitive

Brown

BNC search results Written and Spoken texts

bull like ing returned 472 hits in 340 different texts (98313429 words [4048 texts] frequency 48 instances per million words)

bull like to returned 1623 hits in 863 different texts (98313429 words [4048 texts] frequency 1651 instances per million words)

bull Some examples were not with the gerund eg everything nothing Stirling

bull Examples with modal before ldquolikerdquo included in search results wouldshould (have) like (d) to

bull Age distribution in spoken texts showed similar results

Like

1 2

BNC results

+ gerund

+ infinitive

Some examples are about an occasion in the past the speaker is referring to the whole action

Examples of modal construction influences the use of the infinitive

Could the infinitive be replaced with the gerund =

Distribution of verbs before and after like + infinitive

have 460620 36902

would 245349 19656

think 88395 7082

call 12935 1036

talk 12234 0980

be 649884 52065

watch 6424 0515

see 114941 9208

hear 13032 1044

play 14519 1163

keep 26680 2137

say 66463 5325

d 61585 4934

go 84664 6783

pretend 1176 0094

eat 7258 0581

seen 36316 2909

I like to + infinitive I like + v-ing

688 results 300 results

Think

See

Be

Have

BNC-WEB

This example has like in both the gerund and the infinitive

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) Search Like + gerund (like ing)

Results showed a slight rise in the use of the gerund since 1990

COCA Like + infinitive liked to 5555 tokenslikes to 5311

The results show a slight decline in the use of the infinitive but this complement outweighs the gerund by far The results include ldquowouldrsquod likerdquo

Adverb search with like + infinitive (BNC)

The high frequency of always confirms the idea of habitual preference suggested by like + inf

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

bull A fairly common experience for us is the wife who finds her husband staying out more and more He may be interested in another woman or just like being out with the boys (Brown University Corpus C17 1100)

bull I never liked going straight into an examination with patients - it relaxes them Ive always thought to chat first (Brown University Corpus P19 0760)

bull Now just a minute young lady His face reddened darkening the welts and bruises and emphasizing the purple bulge under the right eye I dont like being called a spylsquo (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus N07 134)

bull Even more simply test your own reactions to different situations There are some which bring on an almost immediate feeling of tiredness - such as when your wife mentions the washing-up - while others if they refer to something you like doing bring a veritable surge of energy (Lancaster-OsloBergen Corpus D06 83)

it is perfectly conceivable for someone to like to get up early in the morning and yet not to like getting uprdquo Universiteacute Laval Quebec PATRICK J DUFFLEY

Are you confused

Corpora search results

Using Antconc with tagged Brown Corpus (American Englishwritten texts)

Colligation search with wildcards Like to|like ing

Total 30 hits

26 hits with infinitive

4 hits with gerund

Similar results produced with Lob corpus (British English)

21 hits in total 4 hits with gerundnoun complement

6 cluster groups liked to likes to liked burdening liked during liked nothing likes wearing

Like

1 2

gerund

infinitive

Brown

BNC search results Written and Spoken texts

bull like ing returned 472 hits in 340 different texts (98313429 words [4048 texts] frequency 48 instances per million words)

bull like to returned 1623 hits in 863 different texts (98313429 words [4048 texts] frequency 1651 instances per million words)

bull Some examples were not with the gerund eg everything nothing Stirling

bull Examples with modal before ldquolikerdquo included in search results wouldshould (have) like (d) to

bull Age distribution in spoken texts showed similar results

Like

1 2

BNC results

+ gerund

+ infinitive

Some examples are about an occasion in the past the speaker is referring to the whole action

Examples of modal construction influences the use of the infinitive

Could the infinitive be replaced with the gerund =

Distribution of verbs before and after like + infinitive

have 460620 36902

would 245349 19656

think 88395 7082

call 12935 1036

talk 12234 0980

be 649884 52065

watch 6424 0515

see 114941 9208

hear 13032 1044

play 14519 1163

keep 26680 2137

say 66463 5325

d 61585 4934

go 84664 6783

pretend 1176 0094

eat 7258 0581

seen 36316 2909

I like to + infinitive I like + v-ing

688 results 300 results

Think

See

Be

Have

BNC-WEB

This example has like in both the gerund and the infinitive

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) Search Like + gerund (like ing)

Results showed a slight rise in the use of the gerund since 1990

COCA Like + infinitive liked to 5555 tokenslikes to 5311

The results show a slight decline in the use of the infinitive but this complement outweighs the gerund by far The results include ldquowouldrsquod likerdquo

Adverb search with like + infinitive (BNC)

The high frequency of always confirms the idea of habitual preference suggested by like + inf

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

it is perfectly conceivable for someone to like to get up early in the morning and yet not to like getting uprdquo Universiteacute Laval Quebec PATRICK J DUFFLEY

Are you confused

Corpora search results

Using Antconc with tagged Brown Corpus (American Englishwritten texts)

Colligation search with wildcards Like to|like ing

Total 30 hits

26 hits with infinitive

4 hits with gerund

Similar results produced with Lob corpus (British English)

21 hits in total 4 hits with gerundnoun complement

6 cluster groups liked to likes to liked burdening liked during liked nothing likes wearing

Like

1 2

gerund

infinitive

Brown

BNC search results Written and Spoken texts

bull like ing returned 472 hits in 340 different texts (98313429 words [4048 texts] frequency 48 instances per million words)

bull like to returned 1623 hits in 863 different texts (98313429 words [4048 texts] frequency 1651 instances per million words)

bull Some examples were not with the gerund eg everything nothing Stirling

bull Examples with modal before ldquolikerdquo included in search results wouldshould (have) like (d) to

bull Age distribution in spoken texts showed similar results

Like

1 2

BNC results

+ gerund

+ infinitive

Some examples are about an occasion in the past the speaker is referring to the whole action

Examples of modal construction influences the use of the infinitive

Could the infinitive be replaced with the gerund =

Distribution of verbs before and after like + infinitive

have 460620 36902

would 245349 19656

think 88395 7082

call 12935 1036

talk 12234 0980

be 649884 52065

watch 6424 0515

see 114941 9208

hear 13032 1044

play 14519 1163

keep 26680 2137

say 66463 5325

d 61585 4934

go 84664 6783

pretend 1176 0094

eat 7258 0581

seen 36316 2909

I like to + infinitive I like + v-ing

688 results 300 results

Think

See

Be

Have

BNC-WEB

This example has like in both the gerund and the infinitive

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) Search Like + gerund (like ing)

Results showed a slight rise in the use of the gerund since 1990

COCA Like + infinitive liked to 5555 tokenslikes to 5311

The results show a slight decline in the use of the infinitive but this complement outweighs the gerund by far The results include ldquowouldrsquod likerdquo

Adverb search with like + infinitive (BNC)

The high frequency of always confirms the idea of habitual preference suggested by like + inf

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

Corpora search results

Using Antconc with tagged Brown Corpus (American Englishwritten texts)

Colligation search with wildcards Like to|like ing

Total 30 hits

26 hits with infinitive

4 hits with gerund

Similar results produced with Lob corpus (British English)

21 hits in total 4 hits with gerundnoun complement

6 cluster groups liked to likes to liked burdening liked during liked nothing likes wearing

Like

1 2

gerund

infinitive

Brown

BNC search results Written and Spoken texts

bull like ing returned 472 hits in 340 different texts (98313429 words [4048 texts] frequency 48 instances per million words)

bull like to returned 1623 hits in 863 different texts (98313429 words [4048 texts] frequency 1651 instances per million words)

bull Some examples were not with the gerund eg everything nothing Stirling

bull Examples with modal before ldquolikerdquo included in search results wouldshould (have) like (d) to

bull Age distribution in spoken texts showed similar results

Like

1 2

BNC results

+ gerund

+ infinitive

Some examples are about an occasion in the past the speaker is referring to the whole action

Examples of modal construction influences the use of the infinitive

Could the infinitive be replaced with the gerund =

Distribution of verbs before and after like + infinitive

have 460620 36902

would 245349 19656

think 88395 7082

call 12935 1036

talk 12234 0980

be 649884 52065

watch 6424 0515

see 114941 9208

hear 13032 1044

play 14519 1163

keep 26680 2137

say 66463 5325

d 61585 4934

go 84664 6783

pretend 1176 0094

eat 7258 0581

seen 36316 2909

I like to + infinitive I like + v-ing

688 results 300 results

Think

See

Be

Have

BNC-WEB

This example has like in both the gerund and the infinitive

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) Search Like + gerund (like ing)

Results showed a slight rise in the use of the gerund since 1990

COCA Like + infinitive liked to 5555 tokenslikes to 5311

The results show a slight decline in the use of the infinitive but this complement outweighs the gerund by far The results include ldquowouldrsquod likerdquo

Adverb search with like + infinitive (BNC)

The high frequency of always confirms the idea of habitual preference suggested by like + inf

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

BNC search results Written and Spoken texts

bull like ing returned 472 hits in 340 different texts (98313429 words [4048 texts] frequency 48 instances per million words)

bull like to returned 1623 hits in 863 different texts (98313429 words [4048 texts] frequency 1651 instances per million words)

bull Some examples were not with the gerund eg everything nothing Stirling

bull Examples with modal before ldquolikerdquo included in search results wouldshould (have) like (d) to

bull Age distribution in spoken texts showed similar results

Like

1 2

BNC results

+ gerund

+ infinitive

Some examples are about an occasion in the past the speaker is referring to the whole action

Examples of modal construction influences the use of the infinitive

Could the infinitive be replaced with the gerund =

Distribution of verbs before and after like + infinitive

have 460620 36902

would 245349 19656

think 88395 7082

call 12935 1036

talk 12234 0980

be 649884 52065

watch 6424 0515

see 114941 9208

hear 13032 1044

play 14519 1163

keep 26680 2137

say 66463 5325

d 61585 4934

go 84664 6783

pretend 1176 0094

eat 7258 0581

seen 36316 2909

I like to + infinitive I like + v-ing

688 results 300 results

Think

See

Be

Have

BNC-WEB

This example has like in both the gerund and the infinitive

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) Search Like + gerund (like ing)

Results showed a slight rise in the use of the gerund since 1990

COCA Like + infinitive liked to 5555 tokenslikes to 5311

The results show a slight decline in the use of the infinitive but this complement outweighs the gerund by far The results include ldquowouldrsquod likerdquo

Adverb search with like + infinitive (BNC)

The high frequency of always confirms the idea of habitual preference suggested by like + inf

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

Some examples are about an occasion in the past the speaker is referring to the whole action

Examples of modal construction influences the use of the infinitive

Could the infinitive be replaced with the gerund =

Distribution of verbs before and after like + infinitive

have 460620 36902

would 245349 19656

think 88395 7082

call 12935 1036

talk 12234 0980

be 649884 52065

watch 6424 0515

see 114941 9208

hear 13032 1044

play 14519 1163

keep 26680 2137

say 66463 5325

d 61585 4934

go 84664 6783

pretend 1176 0094

eat 7258 0581

seen 36316 2909

I like to + infinitive I like + v-ing

688 results 300 results

Think

See

Be

Have

BNC-WEB

This example has like in both the gerund and the infinitive

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) Search Like + gerund (like ing)

Results showed a slight rise in the use of the gerund since 1990

COCA Like + infinitive liked to 5555 tokenslikes to 5311

The results show a slight decline in the use of the infinitive but this complement outweighs the gerund by far The results include ldquowouldrsquod likerdquo

Adverb search with like + infinitive (BNC)

The high frequency of always confirms the idea of habitual preference suggested by like + inf

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

Examples of modal construction influences the use of the infinitive

Could the infinitive be replaced with the gerund =

Distribution of verbs before and after like + infinitive

have 460620 36902

would 245349 19656

think 88395 7082

call 12935 1036

talk 12234 0980

be 649884 52065

watch 6424 0515

see 114941 9208

hear 13032 1044

play 14519 1163

keep 26680 2137

say 66463 5325

d 61585 4934

go 84664 6783

pretend 1176 0094

eat 7258 0581

seen 36316 2909

I like to + infinitive I like + v-ing

688 results 300 results

Think

See

Be

Have

BNC-WEB

This example has like in both the gerund and the infinitive

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) Search Like + gerund (like ing)

Results showed a slight rise in the use of the gerund since 1990

COCA Like + infinitive liked to 5555 tokenslikes to 5311

The results show a slight decline in the use of the infinitive but this complement outweighs the gerund by far The results include ldquowouldrsquod likerdquo

Adverb search with like + infinitive (BNC)

The high frequency of always confirms the idea of habitual preference suggested by like + inf

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

Distribution of verbs before and after like + infinitive

have 460620 36902

would 245349 19656

think 88395 7082

call 12935 1036

talk 12234 0980

be 649884 52065

watch 6424 0515

see 114941 9208

hear 13032 1044

play 14519 1163

keep 26680 2137

say 66463 5325

d 61585 4934

go 84664 6783

pretend 1176 0094

eat 7258 0581

seen 36316 2909

I like to + infinitive I like + v-ing

688 results 300 results

Think

See

Be

Have

BNC-WEB

This example has like in both the gerund and the infinitive

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) Search Like + gerund (like ing)

Results showed a slight rise in the use of the gerund since 1990

COCA Like + infinitive liked to 5555 tokenslikes to 5311

The results show a slight decline in the use of the infinitive but this complement outweighs the gerund by far The results include ldquowouldrsquod likerdquo

Adverb search with like + infinitive (BNC)

The high frequency of always confirms the idea of habitual preference suggested by like + inf

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

I like to + infinitive I like + v-ing

688 results 300 results

Think

See

Be

Have

BNC-WEB

This example has like in both the gerund and the infinitive

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) Search Like + gerund (like ing)

Results showed a slight rise in the use of the gerund since 1990

COCA Like + infinitive liked to 5555 tokenslikes to 5311

The results show a slight decline in the use of the infinitive but this complement outweighs the gerund by far The results include ldquowouldrsquod likerdquo

Adverb search with like + infinitive (BNC)

The high frequency of always confirms the idea of habitual preference suggested by like + inf

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

This example has like in both the gerund and the infinitive

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) Search Like + gerund (like ing)

Results showed a slight rise in the use of the gerund since 1990

COCA Like + infinitive liked to 5555 tokenslikes to 5311

The results show a slight decline in the use of the infinitive but this complement outweighs the gerund by far The results include ldquowouldrsquod likerdquo

Adverb search with like + infinitive (BNC)

The high frequency of always confirms the idea of habitual preference suggested by like + inf

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) Search Like + gerund (like ing)

Results showed a slight rise in the use of the gerund since 1990

COCA Like + infinitive liked to 5555 tokenslikes to 5311

The results show a slight decline in the use of the infinitive but this complement outweighs the gerund by far The results include ldquowouldrsquod likerdquo

Adverb search with like + infinitive (BNC)

The high frequency of always confirms the idea of habitual preference suggested by like + inf

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

COCA Like + infinitive liked to 5555 tokenslikes to 5311

The results show a slight decline in the use of the infinitive but this complement outweighs the gerund by far The results include ldquowouldrsquod likerdquo

Adverb search with like + infinitive (BNC)

The high frequency of always confirms the idea of habitual preference suggested by like + inf

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

Adverb search with like + infinitive (BNC)

The high frequency of always confirms the idea of habitual preference suggested by like + inf

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

Adverb search with like + v -ing (BNC)

All the examples with never are in the past tense suggesting the gerund is used to show an external point of view on the action or on the occasion

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

Query Search on BNC (CQP syntax) to isolate would before like to

[word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB] to [pos=VVI]

Modals are very frequent collocates of like

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

Query search on BNC [word=would amp word=d] [word =like amp class=VERB]

[pos=VVG]

Includes negative form question form emphasis

200 examples with donrsquot like

I donrsquot like (except one)

The observed collocate frequency is different to the expected collocate frequency

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

Examples of would like + gerund (BNC)

bull Would she like seeing this golden college belle at her bedside

bull Williams would always like talking about Orton although he would publicly protest for years that it was so boring to keep going on about his relationship with the writer

bull Cor I wouldnt like working with that lot then

Do these examples have the same meaning if we replace the gerund with the infinitive

Query search on BNC for -ing verbs after like

Questionnaire

English language teachers (native and non-native speakers)

(52 of questionnaires returned)

Two types of sentences using like

a) With the verb (in base infinitive form) provided after like

b) Sentences with free choice of the verb after like

What complement form taught

Would they consider one of the forms incorrect

Research on ESL sites available on the internet also produced a large number of worksheets to practise Like + gerund and hardly any to practise like + infinitive

Text books also focus on like + gerund (Kids Box So English 6e)

Part A Questionnaire results

1

I have always liked to be the centre of attention

I have always liked being the centre of attention

What do you like to do at the weekend

What do you like doing at the weekend

Do you like to have a meal out

Do you like having a meal out

I often like to get up early

I often like getting up early

I didntlike to do homwork

I didnt like doing homework

I like to sit in class

I dont like sitting in class

I like going to the cinema

I like to be at home

I like being at home

Questionnaire results

Part B Questionnaire results Free choice of verb after like

Gerund

Infinitive

Teach Like + gerund

Teach Both

Correction of pupils

No correction

What ESL teachers teach

Conclusion

ldquoYou shall know a word by the company it

keepsrdquo(Firth)

BibliographySitography

Patrick J Duffley Verbs of Liking with the gerund and the infinitive English Studies 2004 4 pp 358-380

Costas Gabrielatos (2005) Corpora Language Teaching Just a Fling or Wedding Bells TESL-EJ 8 (4) pp 1-37 ISSN 1072-4303

The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Rodney Huddleston Geoffrey K Pullum April 2002

A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (General Grammar) 2nd Revised edition by Randolph Quirk Sidney Greenbaum Geoffrey Leech Jan Svartvik

Practical English Usage by Michael Swann

Grammaire Explicative de lrsquoanglais Paul Larreya amp Claude Riviegravere

httpswwwfuturelearncomcoursescorpus-linguistics

Questionnaire

English language teachers (native and non-native speakers)

(52 of questionnaires returned)

Two types of sentences using like

a) With the verb (in base infinitive form) provided after like

b) Sentences with free choice of the verb after like

What complement form taught

Would they consider one of the forms incorrect

Research on ESL sites available on the internet also produced a large number of worksheets to practise Like + gerund and hardly any to practise like + infinitive

Text books also focus on like + gerund (Kids Box So English 6e)

Part A Questionnaire results

1

I have always liked to be the centre of attention

I have always liked being the centre of attention

What do you like to do at the weekend

What do you like doing at the weekend

Do you like to have a meal out

Do you like having a meal out

I often like to get up early

I often like getting up early

I didntlike to do homwork

I didnt like doing homework

I like to sit in class

I dont like sitting in class

I like going to the cinema

I like to be at home

I like being at home

Questionnaire results

Part B Questionnaire results Free choice of verb after like

Gerund

Infinitive

Teach Like + gerund

Teach Both

Correction of pupils

No correction

What ESL teachers teach

Conclusion

ldquoYou shall know a word by the company it

keepsrdquo(Firth)

BibliographySitography

Patrick J Duffley Verbs of Liking with the gerund and the infinitive English Studies 2004 4 pp 358-380

Costas Gabrielatos (2005) Corpora Language Teaching Just a Fling or Wedding Bells TESL-EJ 8 (4) pp 1-37 ISSN 1072-4303

The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Rodney Huddleston Geoffrey K Pullum April 2002

A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (General Grammar) 2nd Revised edition by Randolph Quirk Sidney Greenbaum Geoffrey Leech Jan Svartvik

Practical English Usage by Michael Swann

Grammaire Explicative de lrsquoanglais Paul Larreya amp Claude Riviegravere

httpswwwfuturelearncomcoursescorpus-linguistics

Part A Questionnaire results

1

I have always liked to be the centre of attention

I have always liked being the centre of attention

What do you like to do at the weekend

What do you like doing at the weekend

Do you like to have a meal out

Do you like having a meal out

I often like to get up early

I often like getting up early

I didntlike to do homwork

I didnt like doing homework

I like to sit in class

I dont like sitting in class

I like going to the cinema

I like to be at home

I like being at home

Questionnaire results

Part B Questionnaire results Free choice of verb after like

Gerund

Infinitive

Teach Like + gerund

Teach Both

Correction of pupils

No correction

What ESL teachers teach

Conclusion

ldquoYou shall know a word by the company it

keepsrdquo(Firth)

BibliographySitography

Patrick J Duffley Verbs of Liking with the gerund and the infinitive English Studies 2004 4 pp 358-380

Costas Gabrielatos (2005) Corpora Language Teaching Just a Fling or Wedding Bells TESL-EJ 8 (4) pp 1-37 ISSN 1072-4303

The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Rodney Huddleston Geoffrey K Pullum April 2002

A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (General Grammar) 2nd Revised edition by Randolph Quirk Sidney Greenbaum Geoffrey Leech Jan Svartvik

Practical English Usage by Michael Swann

Grammaire Explicative de lrsquoanglais Paul Larreya amp Claude Riviegravere

httpswwwfuturelearncomcoursescorpus-linguistics

Questionnaire results

Part B Questionnaire results Free choice of verb after like

Gerund

Infinitive

Teach Like + gerund

Teach Both

Correction of pupils

No correction

What ESL teachers teach

Conclusion

ldquoYou shall know a word by the company it

keepsrdquo(Firth)

BibliographySitography

Patrick J Duffley Verbs of Liking with the gerund and the infinitive English Studies 2004 4 pp 358-380

Costas Gabrielatos (2005) Corpora Language Teaching Just a Fling or Wedding Bells TESL-EJ 8 (4) pp 1-37 ISSN 1072-4303

The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Rodney Huddleston Geoffrey K Pullum April 2002

A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (General Grammar) 2nd Revised edition by Randolph Quirk Sidney Greenbaum Geoffrey Leech Jan Svartvik

Practical English Usage by Michael Swann

Grammaire Explicative de lrsquoanglais Paul Larreya amp Claude Riviegravere

httpswwwfuturelearncomcoursescorpus-linguistics

Conclusion

ldquoYou shall know a word by the company it

keepsrdquo(Firth)

BibliographySitography

Patrick J Duffley Verbs of Liking with the gerund and the infinitive English Studies 2004 4 pp 358-380

Costas Gabrielatos (2005) Corpora Language Teaching Just a Fling or Wedding Bells TESL-EJ 8 (4) pp 1-37 ISSN 1072-4303

The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Rodney Huddleston Geoffrey K Pullum April 2002

A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (General Grammar) 2nd Revised edition by Randolph Quirk Sidney Greenbaum Geoffrey Leech Jan Svartvik

Practical English Usage by Michael Swann

Grammaire Explicative de lrsquoanglais Paul Larreya amp Claude Riviegravere

httpswwwfuturelearncomcoursescorpus-linguistics

BibliographySitography

Patrick J Duffley Verbs of Liking with the gerund and the infinitive English Studies 2004 4 pp 358-380

Costas Gabrielatos (2005) Corpora Language Teaching Just a Fling or Wedding Bells TESL-EJ 8 (4) pp 1-37 ISSN 1072-4303

The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Rodney Huddleston Geoffrey K Pullum April 2002

A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (General Grammar) 2nd Revised edition by Randolph Quirk Sidney Greenbaum Geoffrey Leech Jan Svartvik

Practical English Usage by Michael Swann

Grammaire Explicative de lrsquoanglais Paul Larreya amp Claude Riviegravere

httpswwwfuturelearncomcoursescorpus-linguistics