<p>I never get the difference between these two.</p>
<p>Jason likes kicking soccerballs.
Jason likes to kick soccerballs.</p>
<p>What's the difference between the 2?
How do you know which one is right?</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>The council created laws to state what could be done to the old office complex.
The council created laws stating what could be done to the old office complex.</p>
<p>Is there a reference to when you should use an infinitive instead of a participle. They practically function as the same thing; the only way I can tell to use one or the other is by hearing it.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to give hard-and-fast rules because context has a lot to do with it, but I’ll try to answer your two examples.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I believe the second one is more idiomatically correct, although you’ll hear both in everyday conversation. (Kicking in this case is a gerund rather than a participle, btw.)</p>
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</p>
<p>In this case, the first one expresses purpose: the laws were created in order to state what could be done. The second one merely describes the laws: one of their attributes was that they stated what could be done.</p>