Gerund in Passive Sense. We often use a gerund after the verbs need, require and want. In this case, the gerund has a passive sense. Look at these example sentences. Notice that this construction can be in any tense: I have three shirts that need washing. (need to be washed) I sent it back to the shop because it needed fixing. (needed to be fixed)
An infinitive is to + verb. In English, you can’t put two verbs together in a sentence. Instead, the second verb you must change to a gerund or infinitive. For example: After like you can put either a gerund OR an infinitive. So you can say “I like to drink coffee” OR “I like drinking coffee.”. The rule is about the first verb.1 Answer. Both sentences are correct. They have a different meaning. “Try to” implies that the action that is attempted may or may not succeed. Try to give up candy; maybe you will succeed in refraining from eating candy, or maybe you will succumb to the temptation and eat candy anyway. “Try + -ing” indicates that the action may or may
The Verb-ing form is also referred to as a gerund. It is a verb with its “ing” form that is used as the name of an activity, and it can be used with any action verb given. Whereas the infinitive works as other parts of speech in the sentence and it is formed by using to in front of the base verb that you want to use. Diagnostic Test
Note: as of December 2014, the above link does not work. There is a copy of The Brief Penguin Handbook here; the Verbs Followed by Gerunds or Infinitives section is here. The only way to know is to memorize which verbs are followed by gerunds and which are followed by infinitives. The relevant categories are: Verbs Followed by Infinitives