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Possible Duplicates:
Catenatives followed by infinitives and gerunds
“I like to do (be) something” vs “I like doing (being) something”

What is the difference between "I love to sing" and "I love singing"?

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  • 3
    I love verbing!
    – Andrew Grimm
    Jul 3, 2011 at 23:14
  • 4
    you mean you love to verb?
    – Pacerier
    Jul 4, 2011 at 14:15

1 Answer 1

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The grammatical difference is that "I love to sing" uses an infinitive construction, whereas "I love singing" makes use of a gerund.

The difference in meaning is that "I love to sing" is referring to yourself singing, whereas "I love singing" could either refer to yourself singing or others singing.

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  • so what's the difference between an infinitive construction and an gerund?
    – Pacerier
    Jul 3, 2011 at 14:24
  • 1
    @Pacerier: Semantically, as I think drm65 implies even if he doesn't explicitly say it, the difference here is simply that the gerund denotes the act of singing - without implying anything about who performs that act. The infinitive, in this case at least, explicitly identifies the action as being performed by the speaker (and thus carries no ambiguity).
    – FumbleFingers
    Jul 3, 2011 at 15:13

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