You already use infinitives and gerunds. You say things like "I stopped smoking" and "I want to go home." But can you articulate why we say "let me go" (not "let me to go"), or why "Discovering new markets" can open a sentence, or when "find out" becomes "discover" in formal contexts?
🎙 Speak for 2 minutes: What control verbs do you use in English? Think of examples with make, let, help.
At advanced levels, grammar isn't just about correctness — it's about choice. These four structures appear in academic writing, business reports, and sophisticated conversation. They allow you to:
Rank these three register options for formal business writing. Which feels most appropriate? Why?
Option A: "We need to find out what the market wants."
Option B: "We need to discover what the market wants."
Option C: "We need to figure out what the market wants."
🎙 Speak: Choose one. Explain your reasoning in one sentence.
Some verbs take a bare infinitive (base form, no to) because they express causation or permission. The subject causes or allows someone else to act.
Error: "I won't let her to leave without permission."
Correct: "I won't let her leave without permission."
Why? Let + object + bare infinitive. The to disappears.
High register (written): "The CEO had better reconsider that strategy."
Spoken (same meaning): "The CEO should reconsider that strategy."
Note: had better sounds prescriptive, almost forceful. Used in formal warning contexts.
Which sentence has an error? Why?
Error: Incorrect "to". Correct: "Don't make me do that again."
Both are correct. Help accepts both: "help me find" and "help me to find." The bare form is slightly more natural in speech.
Correct. Would rather + bare infinitive (sometimes called "subjunctive"): "I'd rather leave / go / stay."
Use all four structures in one connected thought. Record yourself (or speak aloud). Aim for 90 seconds.
🎙 Record yourself speaking. Use make, let, help, and would rather — one verb per idea.
Both can open a sentence. This is particularly powerful in writing and formal speech because it fronts the action or process before explaining its context.
Emphasises the process or activity. Feels more concrete, tangible.
Gerund: "Discovering new markets is the company's priority."
The word "discovering" is a noun here. It's the thing being done. Very concrete.
Infinitive: "To discover new markets is the company's priority."
Less common in modern English, but it exists. The infinitive feels more formal, more like a goal or mandate.
"Automating repetitive tasks saves time."
Feels practical, result-focused.
"To automate repetitive tasks is imperative."
Sounds more formal, almost legislative.
In practice: Gerunds are far more natural in contemporary English. Infinitive-as-subject is literary, sometimes archaic.
Rewrite these as subjects (gerund or infinitive). Which sounds better?
Option 1 (Gerund): "Listening to customer feedback improves products."
Option 2 (Infinitive): "To listen to customer feedback is to improve products."
Option 1 is modern, natural, and emphasises the activity. Option 2 is stilted.
Gerund: "Practising pronunciation every day develops a native accent."
Direct, actionable. This is the way to say it.
Write three sentences about your life or work, using gerunds or infinitives as the subject. Then read them aloud.
🎙 Read them aloud. Which sounds most natural? Why?
Native speakers use phrasal verbs constantly. But in formal or academic contexts, they swap them for single Latinate verbs. C1 requires you to know both and to code-switch between them.
Four essential swaps:
Spoken / Casual: "We found out the results yesterday. It really put us off."
Business Report: "We discovered the results yesterday. They were disappointing."
In formal writing, you don't say "put off" (= discourage). You'd restructure entirely or use a different verb.
Lecture / Academic: "The pandemic brought about unprecedented changes in work patterns."
Less formal: "The pandemic brought a lot of change to work."
"Bring about" is formal-enough for academic speech. "Cause" would be too blunt.
Rewrite using the formal equivalent:
Formal: "We're discovering whether she's available."
Or: "We're determining whether she's available." (Depends on tone.)
Formal: "We had to address unexpected costs."
"Address" suggests facing a problem head-on, with solutions in mind.
Tell me about a recent work or study challenge. First, speak it casually (using phrasal verbs). Then, retellit more formally (using Latinate verbs). Aim for 90 seconds total.
🎙 Record both versions. Notice how your word choice and tone shift.
Some phrasal verbs have no formal equivalent because they're idiomatic — their meaning cannot be deduced from the parts. These are your natural speech markers at C1.
Sentence: "I came across your old blog post last week."
This is how native speakers say it. "I encountered your old blog post" sounds wrong — too formal and unnatural.
Sentence: "He owned up to breaking the window."
The phrase carries emotional weight. "He admitted" is weaker. "He confessed" is too dramatic.
Sentence: "You'll pull through this. It's temporary."
Offers encouragement. Only works for survival/recovery situations, not general difficulty.
Which sentence sounds unnatural? Why?
Natural. This is the correct, idiomatic way to say "I found / discovered it by chance."
Unnatural. "Come across" means "encounter by chance," not "execute well." You'd say: "He executed the project beautifully."
Natural. "See through" = understand the real intention, perceive the truth. Perfect here.
Write one sentence for each verb. Then read aloud and check: Does it sound natural?
🎙 Read all four aloud. Which feels most natural to you?
Here's a passage from a business article. Identify all instances of our four grammar structures and explain the choice in each case.
"Discovering profitable opportunities requires understanding market conditions. To succeed, leaders must let innovation drive decisions rather than make revenue targets the only priority. When we came across unexpected competition, we had to postpone expansion. Had we owned up to our initial misjudgement, we might have pulled through more smoothly. Don't let fear stop you—address challenges head-on."
Gerund as subject. "Discovering" is a noun (action), fronting the sentence. It emphasises the activity of discovery. Alternative: "To discover" (would sound more formal).
Bare infinitive with let. "Let innovation drive" (not "let innovation to drive"). The object "innovation" causes the action "drive."
Formal equivalent: "Put off" → "postpone." The writer chose "postpone" because the context is formal (business article). Casual version: "we had to put off expansion."
Idiomatic phrasal verb. "Come across" means "encounter unexpectedly." No single formal verb replaces it. It's idiomatic and works in formal and casual contexts.
Idiomatic + Conditional Inversion. "Owned up" = "admitted responsibility." The sentence inverts the conditional: "If we had owned up" → "Had we owned up." Shows introspection and regret. Very formal.
1. Bare infinitive with let: "let fear stop" (not "let fear to stop"). 2. Formal verb (not phrasal): "address" = "deal with." This is the call-to-action ending.
Take this sentence: "Discovering profitable opportunities requires understanding market conditions."
Rewrite it for: (1) Casual speech, (2) Academic writing, (3) Twitter (140 chars).
🎙 Read each aloud. Notice how the grammar and register shift.
✓ Use bare infinitives correctly after make, let, help, had better, would rather.
✓ Front complex ideas as sentence subjects using gerunds and infinitives.
✓ Code-switch between phrasal verbs and their formal equivalents for register.
✓ Deploy idiomatic phrasal verbs (come across, own up, pull through, see through) naturally.
Record yourself speaking for 5 minutes. Tell a story or describe a situation where you had to deal with a challenge at work or school. Try to include:
🎙 Record and listen back. How natural does your speech sound? Are you code-switching unconsciously?
These four structures — bare infinitives, subject-position gerunds/infinitives, formal equivalents, and idiomatic phrasal verbs — are the linguistic markers of C1 competence. You now know why native speakers make the choices they do, and you can replicate that precision in your own speech.
The goal is not perfection. The goal is awareness. When you hear a native speaker say "let me try" instead of "let me to try," or "discovering new ideas matters" instead of "to discover matters," you understand the choice. That understanding is C1.