Enjoy playing, finish painting: verbs and -ing
Some verbs are followed by another verb with -ing. We say enjoy playing, finish painting, stop talking, continue working, imagine sailing, hate waiting. Like, love and prefer can also be followed by -ing: I like drawing. I love swimming. I prefer reading to watching television. We write the -ing form like this: play becomes playing, make becomes making (we lose the e), run becomes running (we double the n), swim becomes swimming. Remember, after enjoy, finish and imagine we do not say ‘to’: we say enjoy playing, not enjoy to play. Read our short text about a model boat and find the verbs.
| Verb | + -ing | Example |
|---|---|---|
| enjoy | playing | I enjoy playing games. |
| finish | painting | She finished painting the boat. |
| stop | talking | He stopped talking. |
| imagine | sailing | We imagine sailing on the Nile. |
| hate | waiting | My brother hates waiting. |
Hoda finished painting her model boat on Friday. She enjoyed making it, and she imagined sailing it on the Nile. First she stopped to rest, and then she continued working on the sail. Her brother hates waiting, but he stopped talking and helped her. Now Hoda prefers playing with her boat to playing with her old toys.
Like and hate. The child writes eight sentences with enjoy, finish, stop, like, love, hate, prefer and imagine, each about the child’s own life. The grown-up reads and says Yes if it is true for the child.