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  1. He agrees to doing/do her work because she helped him earlier.

  2. I agree to go/going there.

  3. I agreed to leaving/leave home earlier.

In my opinion, gerunds shall be used after "to (preposition)" in the above sentences because it seems appropriate according to the rule of putting verb+ing after preposition. However, I am not sure if gerunds will be used in the above sentences because people don't say "I agree to going there". Is the usage of gerunds correct in the above sentences?

herisson
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alexvargas
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1 Answers1

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It's not a mortal sin, but the simple infinitive is more usual.

If you want to over-analyse a bit, when you use the gerund, you're agreeing to that action / activity “in general”, as acceptable, rather than specifically to take that action. For example:

I agree to go home - I will go home (now, or at a particular time that's been suggested)

I agree to going home - I agree that going home would be a good idea. I'm not saying I will do it now or at any particular time

I agree to hunting foxes - I'm a posh twit who thinks chasing animals until they're terrified and watching as they are horribly mangled by a group of ferocious hungry dogs is ok

I agree to hunt foxes - I'm a posh twit who is going to go do those horrible things now

... honestly just trying to find a good example, though I'm not keen on hunting :o)

Community
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Will Crawford
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