English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
This question already has an answer here:
I saw below sentence:
Her job is to clean the hall.
So can I also say like:
Her job is cleaning the hall.
It's present participle or gerund?
What's the different meaning between these two sentences?
This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.
For all practical purposes, no difference at all.
The second one is an abbreviation of 'Her job is (the) cleaning (of) the hall.' 'Cleaning', a gerund. acts as a noun; 'of the hall' an adjectival modifier.
'To clean' on the other hand is the infinitive of the verb.
I cannot think of any obvious reason why one would use one rather than the other. It could be that one might incline more to use of the gerund if 'the cleaning of the hall, were already an established job routine. But I'm by no means certain about that.
