Why Do I Always Get Gerund and Infinitive Wrong in SSC and Bank Exams?
You've revised it three times. You've watched YouTube videos. You've even made notes.
And then — the exam hall. Question 14. A gerund vs infinitive sentence. Your mind goes blank.
You pick one. You move on. You find out later you were wrong — again.
Here's what nobody tells you: it's not your fault. The way gerunds and infinitives are taught in most books and videos is fundamentally broken. They give you lists to memorise. But lists don't explain the logic. And without logic, you'll keep making the same mistakes — no matter how many times you revise.
By the end of this post, you'll know exactly why gerunds and infinitives trip you up, what the 3 real patterns are, and how to apply them during the exam — even under pressure.
A gerund is a verb ending in -ing that functions as a noun (e.g., Swimming builds stamina). An infinitive is to + base verb used as a noun, adjective, or adverb (e.g., She wants to swim). Most SSC and Bank exam aspirants get these wrong because they memorise lists without learning the logic — and the logic is determined by just 3 verb categories that govern the choice.
Why Does This Keep Happening to You?
You're not bad at English. You're studying the wrong way. Here are the real reasons aspirants keep making these mistakes:
- You memorised a list of 30 verbs — but you can't retrieve them under exam pressure. Lists don't stick. Logic does.
- Your textbook gives you rules but no reasoning. "Enjoy takes gerund." Okay, but why? When you don't know why, you second-guess yourself mid-question.
- You've never practised with exam-style MCQs. Reading a rule is not the same as applying it in a timed question format.
- You treat gerunds and infinitives as two separate topics — but they overlap. Some verbs like start, begin, continue take both — and knowing when they differ is what separates 90+ scorers from the rest.
- You haven't seen enough real SSC and Bank exam questions on this topic. The exam has patterns. If you don't know the patterns, you're guessing.
I know exactly how that feels — staring at a question, sure you know the rule, and still doubting yourself. It's one of the most frustrating experiences in exam preparation.
But here's what most people get wrong...
5 Specific Mistakes That Cost You Marks
Mistake 1: Treating Every -ing Word as a Gerund
Not every -ing word is a gerund. "The running water" — running is an adjective here. "She is running" — it's part of a continuous tense. When you can't identify what role the -ing word plays in the sentence, you apply the wrong rule and lose marks.
Mistake 2: Ignoring Prepositions Before Verbs
After any preposition, only a gerund can come — never an infinitive. "She is good at ___" — the blank must take swimming, not to swim. This is one of the most consistently tested patterns in SSC and Bank exams, and most students miss it because they don't spot the preposition first.
Mistake 3: Assuming Both Forms Mean the Same Thing
"I stopped to smoke" and "I stopped smoking" are not the same sentence. The first means you paused something else in order to smoke. The second means you quit. In SSC CGL and Bank PO exams, this meaning shift is tested directly. If you don't know it, you'll pick whichever sounds natural — and be wrong.
Mistake 4: Skipping Participles Entirely
Gerund and participle both end in -ing, which is why many students lump them together or ignore participles. But in error spotting and sentence correction questions, confusing a gerund with a participle is a common trap. The exam paper doesn't care if you're confused — it penalises you either way.
Mistake 5: Relying on 'Sounds Right' Instinct
"Want to go" sounds right. "Enjoy to swim" sounds wrong. Good. But what about "look forward to meet" vs "look forward to meeting"? Most students say "meet" because "to" feels like it should start an infinitive. It doesn't — it's a preposition here. And this exact question has appeared in SSC CHSL papers.
How to Finally Get This Right: 6 Actionable Steps
Stop Memorising Lists. Start Learning Categories.
There are three categories of verbs: (a) verbs that only take gerunds — enjoy, avoid, suggest, practise, risk; (b) verbs that only take infinitives — want, decide, hope, plan, promise; and (c) verbs that take both but with a meaning change — stop, remember, forget, regret, try. Learn the category logic, not the individual verbs. Once you see the pattern, it sticks permanently.
Master the Preposition Rule First
This is the highest-ROI rule in this entire topic. Any verb or adjective followed by a preposition takes a gerund — always. "Good at managing." "Interested in learning." "Tired of waiting." Spot the preposition, and you'll never make this error again.
Learn the 6 Meaning-Change Pairs
"Stop + gerund" vs "stop + infinitive." "Remember + gerund" vs "remember + infinitive." "Try + gerund" vs "try + infinitive." There are six such pairs. Learn what each pair means. The exam loves testing exactly these — because students who only memorise rules get them wrong.
Practise with Real Exam Questions
Don't practise with textbook exercises. SSC, Bank PO, and RRB question papers from the past 5 years have repeated patterns. Once you identify those patterns, you'll approach these questions with recognition — not calculation.
Build a Quick Reference Sheet for the Last 3 Days
In the final three days before your exam, you don't have time to revise everything. You need one page: the three verb categories, the six meaning-change pairs, the preposition rule, and two examples for each. That's your last-mile strategy. Students who make this sheet consistently outperform those who re-read entire chapters.
Eliminate Options — Don't Confirm Them
In MCQ exams, the fastest approach is elimination, not selection. Instead of asking "Is this right?", ask "Is this wrong?" Run through each option and eliminate the ones that break a known rule. This works faster under pressure and reduces second-guessing. Most aspirants don't practise this technique — which is why the advanced version takes deliberate preparation.
How Arjun Went from 14/25 to 22/25 in English
When Arjun started preparing for SSC CGL, his English section was his biggest weakness. He could handle reading comprehension, but error spotting and sentence correction consistently dragged his score down — especially questions on gerunds and infinitives.
He'd revised the chapter three times. He knew the names. But he kept getting the application wrong.
The turning point came when he stopped treating this as a vocabulary problem and started treating it as a logic problem. He mapped out the three verb categories on one page. He drilled the preposition rule with 40 targeted questions. And he specifically practised the six meaning-change pairs with exam-style MCQs until they felt automatic.
Three weeks later, his sectional score in English went from 14/25 to 22/25. Not because he studied harder — because he studied the right things in the right order.
5 Quick Tips Most Articles Won't Tell You
Tip 1: 'To' After 'Look Forward' is Always a Preposition
This trips up even advanced students. "I look forward to meeting you" — not "to meet." Because "to" here is part of the phrase "look forward to," not the start of an infinitive. Memorise this phrase and you've eliminated one of the most common exam traps permanently.
Tip 2: Subjects of Gerunds Take Possessive Form
"I appreciate you helping me" is technically less accurate than "I appreciate your helping me." SSC and formal English tests prefer the possessive form before a gerund. It's a minor rule, but it appears in error spotting questions specifically because most students don't know it.
Tip 3: 'Need', 'Want', and 'Require' Use Passive Gerunds
"The car needs washing" means the car needs to be washed. Both constructions are correct — but in objective exams, the active gerund construction is often the expected answer. Students unfamiliar with it automatically choose the longer passive form and lose a mark they should have kept.
Tip 4: Test the Sentence with 'the Fact of' to Identify a Gerund
If you can substitute "the fact of [verb+ing]" without breaking the sentence meaning, you're dealing with a gerund. This is a 5-second identification trick for exam questions where you're unsure about the role of an -ing word.
Tip 5: Participial Phrases at Sentence Start Are Almost Always Misread
"Running fast, he reached the station" — most students misread "running" as a gerund here. It's a participle modifying "he." When an -ing phrase opens a sentence and is followed by a comma, it's a participial phrase — not a gerund. This distinction directly affects error spotting answers.
You're One Chapter Away From Getting This Right
You came to this article because gerunds and infinitives kept tripping you up — and you were tired of losing marks you should have got.
Now you know the real problem: it wasn't your effort. It was the approach. Lists without logic. Rules without reasoning. Practice without exam patterns.
You could piece all of this together on your own — cross-referencing textbooks, collecting exam papers, building your own question bank. That might take months.
Or you could have it all in one place — organised, explained, and ready to use.
Click cover to view on Amazon
Gerunds vs Infinitives vs Participles
The complete exam-ready workbook for SSC, Bank PO, RRB & CBSE 12th
- 500 exam-pattern MCQs (SSC, Bank PO, RRB, CBSE 12th)
- 10 Shortcut Rules — learn the logic, not just the list
- 23 Exam Traps — the exact mistakes students make and why
- Meaning-change pairs with before/after examples
Not sure? Check the free preview on Amazon first.
Frequently Asked Questions
A gerund is a verb ending in -ing that functions as a noun in a sentence (e.g., Swimming builds stamina). An infinitive is to + base verb used as a noun, adjective, or adverb (e.g., She wants to swim). The key difference is which verbs or prepositions they follow — and that is determined by rule, not by instinct.
Because most revision focuses on memorising lists of verbs rather than understanding the underlying logic. Without logic, you can't retrieve the rule under exam pressure. The fix is to learn the three verb categories and the preposition rule — not to memorise longer lists.
Verbs like enjoy, avoid, suggest, practise, risk, mind, delay, keep, miss, and finish always take the gerund form. More importantly, any verb or adjective followed by a preposition must take a gerund — this pattern is tested consistently in SSC CGL, CHSL, and Bank PO exams.
Yes. Gerunds, infinitives, and participles appear in error spotting, sentence correction, and fill-in-the-blanks sections — often 2 to 4 questions per exam. Aspirants who understand the underlying patterns consistently score higher in the English section.
For the grammar section covering verb forms specifically — yes, it gives you exhaustive coverage. For complete English preparation (reading comprehension, vocabulary, cloze tests), you'll want to combine it with other resources. The book is designed to make you exam-ready on this specific topic in the least time possible.
YouTube tutorials give you general explanations. This book gives you 500 exam-pattern MCQs with shortcut rules, 23 documented exam traps, and the exact patterns that appear in SSC and Bank papers — with explanations written for aspirants who've already watched the tutorials and still keep making mistakes.
Yes. The book starts with foundational definitions and moves progressively to advanced exam patterns. Whether you're beginning your preparation or revising three weeks before your exam, the structure works for both.
