How a decision actually goes
Six stages of a decision, out of order. Put them in the order they usually happen — not the order a textbook would give.
Every stage in that list needed a verb followed by another verb. Avoid asking. Decide to tell. Keep collecting.
Today: the thirty that do most of this work.
Why the lists never stick
The problem with learning the list
Almost every learner who has studied English for three years can tell you that enjoy takes the -ing form. A good number of them will say I enjoy to travel ten seconds later, in the same lesson, without noticing.
This is not forgetting, and it is not carelessness. It is a timing problem. The rule is a fact about enjoy, but it has to be used at the moment the second verb is being chosen — and by then enjoy has been said and is gone. The speaker is deciding what to say, and is asked, mid-decision, to look up a property of a word they have already finished with.
Fluent speakers do not solve this problem. They do not have it. For them enjoy doing is a single stored item, retrieved whole, the way good morning is retrieved whole. Nothing is looked up, because nothing was ever separated.
So the thirty verbs below are not presented as a list of verbs with rules attached. They are presented as pairs. Learn the pair, say the pair, and the problem does not arise — because there is no moment at which anything has to be worked out.
Three questions.
1. Why does knowing the rule not prevent the error?
2. What does a fluent speaker retrieve?
3. What follows from that for how you study these thirty verbs?
The thirty, as pairs
Group 1 · verb + -ing — ten to hold
| Pair | Meaning in use | Pair | Meaning in use |
|---|---|---|---|
| avoid saying | Deliberately not doing it | keep asking | Doing it repeatedly |
| consider moving | Genuinely weighing it | mind waiting | Usually in questions and negatives |
| enjoy working | The activity itself is good | practise speaking | Repeating in order to improve |
| finish writing | Completing something started | suggest trying | Proposing, without an object |
| imagine living | Picturing it as real | risk losing | Accepting a possible cost |
Group 2 · verb + to — twelve to hold
| Pair | Meaning in use | Pair | Meaning in use |
|---|---|---|---|
| afford to lose | Almost always with can’t | offer to help | Volunteering, unasked |
| agree to meet | Saying yes to a proposal | plan to start | Intending, with steps |
| decide to stay | The moment of choosing | promise to call | Committing to somebody |
| hope to hear | Wanting, without control | refuse to sign | A firm no, with a reason implied |
| learn to drive | Acquiring an ability | want to know | The most common of all |
| manage to get | Succeeded, with difficulty | need to talk | Necessity, from the speaker |
Group 3 · verb + somebody + to — eight to hold
| Pair | What it does | Pair | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| advise somebody to wait | A recommendation with authority | invite somebody to join | An offer of inclusion |
| allow somebody to leave | Permission, from a position to give it | persuade somebody to stay | Succeeded in changing a mind |
| ask somebody to wait | A request between equals | remind somebody to send | They already knew |
| encourage somebody to apply | Support, not instruction | tell somebody to wait | An instruction, not a request |
Group 3 is where Portuguese pushes hardest. Portuguese uses a que clause: pediu que eu esperasse, disse para eu esperar. Translated directly, that produces He asked that I waited — which English speakers understand and never say.
English puts the person in the middle and gives them the infinitive: asked me to wait. Person first, to second. Eight verbs, one shape.
Ten verbs. Match each to the shape it takes. Say the full pair aloud as you place it.
Four questions on the three groups.
1. Which is correct?
2. Which is correct?
3. I can’t afford ___ this one.
4. Why is He asked that I waited wrong in English?
Thirty verbs, in sentences that mean something
One to three words per gap. Group 3 gaps need a person as well as a verb.
I have been considering for a year, and I still cannot afford the flat. My sister keeps whether I have decided, and last week she persuaded to a viewing. I managed twenty minutes late, which she had warned about. I do not mind , but I refuse on the spot.
Seven sentences. One error each. Say the corrected pair aloud before writing it.
1. She suggested me to take the other job.
2. I cannot afford losing three months on this.
3. He persuaded me staying until March.
4. We have finished to discuss it.
5. They asked that I sent the figures again.
6. I managed getting there before it closed.
7. Would you mind to wait ten minutes?
Chunk relay
Task card · Speaking · Pairs · 8 minutes, fast
A says one of the thirty verbs. B has three seconds to finish it with a true statement about their own life.
Speed, not elegance. Twenty exchanges in eight minutes. Swap roles every five verbs.
- The statement has to be true. I can’t afford to replace my laptop — not a made-up sentence.
- Three seconds. If B hesitates, A says the pair for them and moves on. No discussion.
- B may not repeat a second verb already used in this round.
- Keep a count of the ones that stalled. Those are your six to carry into Lesson 6.
Why three seconds. With ten seconds you look the rule up and get it right, which teaches you nothing you did not already know. Three seconds is short enough that only a stored pair arrives in time.
Which ones stalled
Two questions about your own list of stalls.
1. Most stalls happen on verbs where…
2. What is the fastest repair for a stalled pair?
Thirty pairs, one page
Two questions. Twenty seconds.
1. What goes between the verb and to in group 3?
2. Which verbs come next lesson?
Next. The eight verbs that take both forms — where the choice is not arbitrary at all, and one rule covers every case.