If you have doubts about what to put after verbs like ALLOW, SUGGEST, LET, REQUIRE, this is a lesson you must follow!

What form should follow the verb DENY? Should I say: ‘I deny copying my homework’ or ‘I deny to copy my homework’? And how am I supposed to know which one is correct?

If these doubts sound familiar, you are in the right place as we want to answer all your doubts related precisely to Verb Patterns in English (because this is what this lovely and quite confusing area of grammar happens to be called)

What are Verb Patterns?

In the sentence: I love chatting with Anna one verb follows another. The first verb is ‘love’, the second verb is ‘chat’.

In sentences where a verb is followed by another one, there are different possible patterns in English. For example:

A: I want to buy a sofa

B: I hate waiting

In sentence A, the first verb is followed by an infinitive.

In sentence B, the first verb is followed by a gerund (-ing) form.

Whether we should choose the ING or the INF form depends on and is dictated by the first of the two verbs. So, every time you learn a new verb, you need to learn the verb pattern it will oblige other verbs to be in. Unfortunately, some verbs have more than one possible pattern! Sometimes, if a verb has two patterns, each pattern can have a different meaning or use. If you want to learn about the verbs with more than one meaning, you should check part 2 of this topic: Verb Patterns 2.

How Should I Study Verb Patterns?

The most important thing is to study the new verbs in context. mpec Coaches prepared a free worksheet you can download below – it contains all the most important English verbs and the patterns they follow as well as some contextual exercises and answers.

If you think you need to practice some more, feel free to get in touch with us and we can see if there is a course that feels right for you!