I know we've been on this time and time again in this forum, but recently I've come across a seemingly tendency* to use -ing forms rather than to+verb in verb+verb constructions with like, for example:
(1) Do you like swimming?
Is it just author's stylistic choice or has something changed and I'm not aware of (as I tend to use I like to swim)?
Thanks
José
* Indeed I've seen it in two coursebooks: Sky High and Attitude both by MacMillan. As far as I knew I like [V [ing]] constructions was more of a British style, and as the forementioned books are American, so that caught my attention.
Do you like [playing]/[to play] football?
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Coming at this once again then, I'd say that the -ing is less "direct": 'Do you like to swim' can only really be referring to you(r) liking to swim, rather than a liking for "the activity in general", and in fact sounds strange enough that it might deserve a somewhat facetious answer like 'No, I prefer to drown'.
Another thought off the top of my head is that if you changed the 'like' to e.g. the friendlier 'fancy' (i.e. ' ~ doing/going -ing', which would get straight to a functional point: making an invitation in one conversational move, as opposed to the two-move preamble + invite of 'like [to]' + 'fancy [doing/going] -ing'), then you really would need to use at least one -ing without any intervening 'to': *Do you fancy: to swim/to go swimming? Not of course that the 'like' couldn't be changed to want' (Do you want...to go swimming/?to swim).
What I'm basically suggesting here is teaching verbs/examples where the grammatical choice actually matters, or at least is functionally kosher.
Another thought off the top of my head is that if you changed the 'like' to e.g. the friendlier 'fancy' (i.e. ' ~ doing/going -ing', which would get straight to a functional point: making an invitation in one conversational move, as opposed to the two-move preamble + invite of 'like [to]' + 'fancy [doing/going] -ing'), then you really would need to use at least one -ing without any intervening 'to': *Do you fancy: to swim/to go swimming? Not of course that the 'like' couldn't be changed to want' (Do you want...to go swimming/?to swim).
What I'm basically suggesting here is teaching verbs/examples where the grammatical choice actually matters, or at least is functionally kosher.