🧵 Grammar B1-16: Verb patterns: gerunds and infinitives

The B1 material where two-verb sentences stop being a pair of A2 lists and become a four-pattern map. The law stays honest — the first verb decides, and the second verb is frozen in one of two uniforms — but the squads fill out: enjoy, avoid, finish, suggest, keep, practise, mind, can’t stand and miss on the -ing team; decide, hope, promise, offer, refuse, learn, manage, plan, expect and agree on the to team, with the machinery table showing that all tense, person, negatives and questions land on the first verb, and that not simply steps in front of the uniform. The genuinely new pattern gets its own section: ask, tell, want, invite, allow, teach and remind put a person between the two verbs, and the to-infinitive follows the person — she wants me to help, never she wants that I help. The fourth pattern is the friendliest: after any preposition the verb wears -ing, with the noun test disarming the look-forward-to trap. A compare-and-verdict pair previews the B2 meaning-change family through stop alone: Dan stopped to buy batteries against Dan stopped buying batteries — a pause with a purpose against an activity that ended — while start, begin and continue stay off-duty. A 120-word production diary from the school film club shows all four patterns choosing forms in the wild. Practice runs to thirty-five explained multiple-choice items in five sets, twelve first verbs to sort into their teams, six real learner repairs, and three traps: look forward to seeing, suggest’s refusal of to, and want’s refusal of a that-clause. Teacher notes carry the 45-minute sequence, the transfer-signing board move, the give-then-break memory hooks, and Cambridge B1 Preliminary relevance.