Monday, November 21, 2016

grammar - Why "like doing something" or "like to do something" but only "dislike doing something"?



At a further education course for teachers, in Switzerland, (given by two native speakers of English), someone came up with the question of whether you could say "dislike doing something" and "dislike to do something", just as you can say "like doing something" and "like to do somehting".



The answer was you could not, and that it was a question of usage. Period!/Full stop!




Just learn this by heart and stop asking silly questions!



Will keeping your whys to yourself make you… wise?!


Answer



Of course, I don't think it will!



The difference of meaning between "to like doing something" and "to like to do something" is that the infinitive structure adds the idea of choice to the one of simply liking something. "I like skiing." versus "I like to ski in powder snow in the early morning.": the second sentence means that I like skiing and that, for my greater enjoyment, I choose to go and ski in the early morning when it has just snowed.



So, of course, if you dislike something, then you are not going to choose when or how you are going to do it for your greater enjoyment… that would be absurd!




There IS an explanation, see…


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