Teacher Discussion Forums

I know that the verb like can be followed by a gerund or an infinitive. For example: I like to go to shopping. I like going shopping.

But what if you use "I would like...? This sounds OK to me: I would like to go shopping. This sounds a little strange to me: I would like going shopping.

Is it not correct to follow "would like" with a gerund? Or can you do it, but a native-speaker would most often choose to use the infinitive not the gerund?

You can use it to mean "would enjoy"

"I live in Spain but I don't like living in Spain. Everybody speaks Spanish. I would like living in Spain if everybody spoke English"

"I would like going shopping if everything was free."

Usully though the sense of "would like" is "want" and is followed by "to"

According to a Canadian author on good writing, the verb “like” must be followed by an infinitive, not a gerund. For example, “I like to shop” is correct but not “ I like shopping.” The verb “go” is usually followed by an infinitive but “go shopping” is one exception. Therefore “I like to go shopping” is fine but not “I like to go to shop.”

A British author on a grammar text thinks it’s equally common in British and American English to use a gerund after “like” but only Americans use an infinitive after “like”. It sounds to me like “I like shopping” is equally common in Great Britain and America but “I like to shop” is only common in American usage. I would probably include Canadian in the latter category. I tend to agree with these authors.

One other British author likes to see an infinitive after “like” to imply something someone likes to do but does not necessarily enjoy doing. He likens “would like” to “want” and again infinitive shall follow.

The 1st British author goes on to imply that adding a modal auxiliary “ would” to “like” would allow an infinitive to follow only. Therefore “I would like to go shopping” sounds ok with both authors but not “I would like going shopping.” This definitely agrees with your contention.

To answer your last question, it would NOT be correct to use a gerund after “would like”, at least not according to the British authors and not to the Canadian author implicitly.

I think we in Vancouver here tend to say “I like to go shopping ” or “ I would like to go shopping.” I don’t think we say “I like to go to shopping “ or “ I would to go to shopping” but rather we say “I like to go to shop” or “I would like to go to shop.” We don’t distinguish between “like” or ”would like”. We don’t seem to use the gerund after “like” a lot. We also say “I like to go to do some shopping.”

Complete the following sentence:

I detest going shopping because everything's so expensive. If everything was cheaper I would like ............. shopping.

If you put "going" it makes mincemeat of all these pronouncements. I suspect that these unnamed authors are either writing for learners where sweeping generalisations are common or are only writing about their variant. And even then they haven't examined every situation carefully (see my sentence above).

"What do you feel like doing later?"

"Well, I would like going shopping or to the beach..."

Ok, I might not put it exactly this way but I could see it happening.

Ok, I might not put it exactly this way but I could see it happening.

Not many others would put it this way. The number of hits for "I would like going" including ones much more likely than your example are 230, compared to over a million for "I would like to go".

'I would like .....ing" can only refer to a repeated action, e.g "I would like having people come round to stay more often, but my house is just too small."

Not only (a dangerous word to use) repeated actions but states like "live"(see above) as well. As I said it can serve as a substitute for "would enjoy", in which case the ing seems more natural.

If you are married, don't you say "I wouldn't like being married unless..........."?

For similar reasons I can't see myself saying "Under other circumstances I'd like to be a teacher or "I would like to live in Spain if ......."

BTW if anybody wants to take an unhealthy interest in this kind of thing, this would be a good, or bad, place to start.

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... php?t=3756

I know I've given this example before, but for the benefit of those who haven't seen it before...

A wheelchair-user friend of yours tells you he's going to watch the Bolshoi ballet. What would be an appropriate response?

A) I didn't know you liked dancing.
B) I didn't know you liked to dance.

Anyone here still says you can't have a gerund after like?

We're talking about 'would like'.

You do make a good point here though. When you use the infinitive the 'subject' of the infinitive is going to be the same as that of the catenative verb, but with the ',,ing' form that is not necessarily true.

Now here's a distinction using 'would like'.

I'd like to dance, but I've hurt my ankle.
I'd like dancing if only they played tuneful music like they used to in the old days.

I know the thread was originally about would like. but I was responding to the unnamed Canadian author's claim that like cannot be followed by a gerund.

Doesn't the difference here come down to the fact that would like can have the "classic" conditional sense (e.g. your I'd like dancing... example is very similar to I'd like my mother's cooking if she didn't use so much salt) or in the sense of "want" (your I'd like to dance... example is more like I'd like to go out tonight but I'm broke until the end of the month)

Exactly

So, in other words, the answer to the question "Is I would like going shopping correct?" is "It depends what you're trying to say." Like so many other "Is this correct?" type questions.

Well, you could have just read the second post on this thread and resignedly prostrated yourselves before the awesome intellectual prowess of its writer. But no, you had to work it out for yourselves.

Think of it as peer reviewing, Juan