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I have come across the following sentence (no context, the rubric of the task is to fill in the gaps with the words in capital letters, making all the necessary changes) in Macmillan Exam Skills for Russia by Malcolm Mann and Steve Taylore-Knowles, 2007:
My grandad loves to .... and we often go out on his boat. SAIL
If not for the particle 'to' before the ellipsis, my choice would be 'sailing' because according to Michael Swan in his Practical English Usage (Fully Revised) Third Edition OUP, 2005
to talk about enjoying activities in general, we can use ‘like… ing’ (especially in British English)'.
Why would authors give so little context and provide our students with such an ambiguous example?
Furthermore, the part of the rule that one 'can use ‘like + infinitive’ to talk about choices and habits' hasn't been covered/discussed anywhere in the coursebook.
What would your choice be if not for the particle 'to'? I'm mostly interested in British English native speakers' answers.
Yukatan
Posted 2014-12-15T06:58:12.780
Reputation: 1 196
1If the book hasnt covered 'like ...ing' then you wouldnt expect it to be used in an exercise. As a Brit i think i would prefer 'like ...ing' over 'like to ...', but there's not much in it, they have identical meanings. – Alan Third – 2014-12-15T11:50:46.327
It's more important that you get an accurate answer about British English than it be written by a native speaker. – snailplane – 2014-12-15T17:43:32.457
I need an accurate answer from a native speaker, yes.. @snailboat – Yukatan – 2014-12-15T17:49:45.310
No, just an accurate answer. It doesn't matter who writes it. – snailplane – 2014-12-15T17:54:05.737
Related: http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/53252/whats-the-difference-between-i-love-singing-and-i-love-to-sing
– Damkerng T. – 2015-03-21T19:29:32.433