| 13.1.3 à plus infinitive |
Some verbs connect a following infinitive with à.
| à bei Anschluss eines Infinitivs | |
| commencer à + infinitive = to start to ... | |
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Il commence à faire du sport. |
| He starts to go in for sports. | |
| apprendre à + infinitive = to learn (how) to ... | |
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Il apprend à nager. |
| He learns how to swim. | |
| continuer à + infinitive = to continue to ... | |
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Il continue à écrire. |
| He continues to write. / He continues writing. | |
| chercher à + infinitive = to try to ... | |
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Il cherche à le faire. |
| He tries to do it. | |
| renoncer à + infinitive = to abandon to ... | |
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Il renonce à le faire. |
| He abandons to do it. | |
| tenir à + infinitive = to make a point doing sth. | |
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Il tient à le faire lui-même. |
| He makes a point doing it himself. | |
| hésiter à + infinitive = to hesitate to ... | |
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Il hésite à le faire. |
| He hesitates to do it. | |
Unfortunately it does not mean that all infinitives are connected to the previous verb with à. Here some examples about the opposite.
| Verbs connecting the infinitive with de | |
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Il craint de faire des fautes. |
| He is afraid to make mistakes. | |
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Il évite de lui parler. |
| He avoids to talk to him. | |
|
Il oublie de payer les factures. |
| He forgets to pay the bills. | |
In some cases the meaning of the verb changes with different prepositions. Actually in English we have the same, (e.g. looking for; looking after; looking at...).
| Verbs with different prepositions | |
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Il arrive quand même à se débrouiller. |
| He still gets along fine. | |
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Il lui arrive de s' endormir en plein jour. |
| It happens that he falls asleep during the day. | |
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