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Participle or infinitive?

Dear Dr English,

I am confused about when to use a participle or to+infinitive after a verb, such as:  

The baby started crying.

The baby started to cry.

Does the change in structure affect the meaning of the sentence?

Waleerut Meekul

From your question, you are talking about a sentence that describes two actions done by the

same person. This means we have two verbs in one sentence. For the second verb, we use a

non-finite verb straight after the first one. But since non-finite verbs come in many forms, here

is where the problem starts.

Allow me to give a short description of non-finite verbs in case you have already forgotten

them. Non-finite verbs are verbs in infinitive or participle forms such as "to talk" or "jumping".

In a sentence we say:

My girlfriend enjoys eating somtam.

Children love to play in water.

But verbs have a different nature; some of them are always followed by a participle, some with the infinitive and some with either. The verb "start" in your question falls in the last category, but does that mean they have the same meaning? Usually not!

Phil remembered meeting Jane at last-year's Christmas party.

Paul remembered to get milk from the supermarket.

In the first sentence, "remember" is followed by verb+ing and is used to describe an event in the past.

In the second sentence, "remember" is followed by an infinitive with "to" and refers to something that is done later.

The same is true for "forget".

Similarly, if you stop doing something, you simply stop the action in the following verb.

Jane stopped dating Jack - meaning Jane will no longer date Jack.

Jane stopped to talk to Paul, on the other hand, means that Jane stopped whatever she was doing at that time in order to start talking to Paul.

Now, would that be "start talking" or "start to talk"? Usually, there is no real difference in

meaning between the two. However, if you start a habit, a routine or a skill, you would use

verb+ing.

James started playing the piano when he was four.

If we talk about the beginning of a particular event, we usually use a "to" infinitive.

When Joe started to play the piano, everybody fell silent.

In your example at the beginning, it really depends on the context. Does the baby have a habit of crying or are you talking about one singular event?

To make it thoroughly confusing, look at the sense verbs: see, hear, touch, smell and taste.

These can be followed either by verb+ing or by infinitive without "to".

I saw Kesinee walk across the yard.

I saw Kesinee walking across the yard.

In the first example, I saw the complete action, from the beginning to the end.

In the second example, Kesinee is already some way in the yard before I start seeing her. In

short, sense verbs followed by the infinitive show complete actions; 'sense'verbs followed by

verb+ing show only part of the action.

Unfortunately, there are no rules or logical groupings of all these words that can be followed by verb+ing or infinitive with or without "to". We have to learn the structure together with every word we learn.

By Dr English

drenglish_7@hotmail.com