A number of verbs are commonly followed by gerunds and/or infinitives. Unfortunately, there is often no rule that we can rely on to determine if the verb should be followed by a gerund or an infinitive. We must memorize which verbs are followed by which verbal (that is, gerund or infinitive). Most of the time, the verbs are necessarily followed by one verbal or the other; other times, there is an option. Sometimes, the options do not make a difference in meaning, but other times the option chosen does change the meaning. Let's start by taking a look at a list of verbs that are followed by gerunds and another list of verbs followed by infinitives.

Verbs Followed By Gerunds: admit, allow, appreciate, avoid, celebrate, consider, delay, discuss, dislike, dread, endure, enjoy, fear, finish, give up, keep, mind, miss, postpone, practice, recall, risk, suggest.

Examples:
The former president never admitted lying to the American people.
Megumi endured listening to Homare sing that song.
Hideki celebrated getting a 940 on the TOEIC with a glass of wine.
Sana gave up drinking beer for breakfast.
Did Iuliya finish doing her homework?

Verbs Followed By Infinitives: agree, ask, attempt, choose, claim, decide, demand, determine, expect, fail, hesitate, hope, intend, learn, manage, need, neglect, offer, plan, prepare, refuse, struggle, want.

Examples:
The teacher agreed to let the students choose the teams.
The victim of the shooting managed to call 911.
Sana wants to give up drinking beer for lunch, too.
Did Yukie learn to play guitar from her husband?
Megumi neglected to tell him that she had another boyfriend.

Verbs Followed By Gerunds or Infinitives (with no recogizable change in meaning):
begin, can't stand, continue, hate, like, love, prefer, start

Example: Akane's dog started to do (doing) something bad on the white carpet.

Verbs Followed By Gerunds or Infinitives (with a change in meaning):
forget, quit, regret, remember, stop, try

Examples:
Huyen forgot to meet Len. (Huyen did not meet Len.)
Huyen forgot meeting Len. (Huyen met Len but has no memory of it.)

Len quit to work here. (Len left another job so he could work here.)
Len quit working. (Len doesn't work here anymore.)

Sakura regretted saying those mean words to one of her boyfriends. (Sakura is sorry that she said those words to him.)
We regret to say that we cannot come to your party. (We want to come, but we cannot come.)

Akane remembered to visit Marie. (She did not forget to visit.)
Akane remembered visiting Marie. (She has a memory of the visit.)

He stopped to smoke. (He interrupted another action in order to smoke.)
He stopped smoking. (He doesn't smoke anymore.)

I tried to open the window. (I attempted this action, but the window would not open.)
I tried opening the window. (It was one thing that I did to see if I could make the room cooler.)