The Editor’s Manual
Free learning resource on English grammar, punctuation, usage, and style.
Anticipatory “it” is used in the subject or object position to refer to the real subject or object, which appears later in the sentence (e.g., “It was nice to meet you”).
Prepositions express relations of time (“during the day”) and space (“at the market”), and other abstract relations (“the secret of happiness”) between two parts of a sentence.
A gerund is a verb form ending in “-ing” (“baking,” “swimming,” “dancing”) that acts as a noun.
Some verbs can take gerunds and infinitives as the object interchangeably (e.g., “start,” “love,” “prefer”). But certain verbs can take only infinitives (e.g., “need,” “plan,” “agree”), while others can take only gerunds (e.g., “finish,” “consider,” “suggest”).
An infinitive is the basic form of a verb. It is generally used with the word “to” (“to run”). It can function as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb in a sentence.