<p>What's the different between them two? How do you know which to use?</p>
<p>An infinitive exists as a verb preceded by the word “to.” For example, I like TO PLAY outside. “To play” serves as the infinitive in this sentence. </p>
<p>Gerunds include -ing verbs that serve as nouns. For instance, “TANNING will likely improve your tan.” You can identify gerunds by replacing them with any noun to see if the sentence maintains its flawlessness - “The sun will likely improve your tan.”</p>
<p>Okay. I have that cover, but on the SAT Kaplan writing Q there’s one that I’m confused about. </p>
<p>“Team officials heralded Cap Day as an attempt at attracting a larger turnout of fans”</p>
<p>They said the mistake is “attempt at attracting”
My question is how can you spot them?</p>
<p>It’s similar to an idiom. You wouldn’t say “Team officials heralded Cap Day as an attempt at attracting a larger turnout of fans”, instead “Team officials heralded Cap Day as an attempt to attract a larger turnout of fans”.</p>
<p>It’s more common to say the second version and that is what an idiom is.</p>
<p>It’s like what JoshuaSays says ^. You kind of have to say this sentence out loud. You would use a verb infinitive instead. So it would be like what herozero1234 says ^.</p>
<p>That’s the main thing I do in looking at any sentence - which one SOUNDS better? Of course, that doesn’t work for some people, since a common mistake is, “Between you and I…” That drives me nuts!</p>
<p>Idiom? There’s no reasonable explanation for this!?!? Grrrrr. This is going to give me a hard time on the SAT! Thanks you guys!</p>
<p>I am leery of any “verb” ending in -ing, especially in the hardest level questions. If it isn’t attached to a helping verb (is running, was assisting, etc.), I take a much closer look at it to make sure it’s in a proper form. But yes, that Kaplan question is really more about recognizing the idiom than the use of gerund. Luckily, these questions are among the hardest on the test, so that’s another clue.</p>
<p>Ohhh. So if a gerund verb like running, eating, etc isn’t attached with a helping verb like “is” then it’s a clue that it’s wrong on the SAT writing component? Gotchaaaa</p>
<p>For example</p>
<p>I deny playing football (deny is gerund)
I refuse to do anything(refuse is inf.)</p>
<p>the way to master in this is memorizing or being familiar with them
(but I think the first way is better)</p>
<p>^^^ what do you mean first way? What’s the first way you’re talking about?</p>
<p>^^^
try to memorizing which word is gerund and others are infinitive.</p>
<p>No, it’s not always the error. It’s just something you should watch because it is often an error.</p>