Cambridge distinguishes intransitive “approve of” for a favorable opinion from transitive “approve something” for official acceptance or authorization. The official-authorization sense uses transitive “approve” with an object; do not collapse that separate sense into the “approve of doing” judgment pattern.
ReviewedEvidence1 sourceSectionEnglish Usage
Quick answer
Use “approve of doing” when approve means think an action is good, acceptable, or suitable; “approve to do” is not the parallel complement for that meaning.
Key details
Confusion Familygrammar-and-usage distinction
Rule Familypreposition and verb-complement pattern
TermsApprove Of Doing, Approve To Do
Further guidance
Boundary
The official-authorization sense uses transitive “approve” with an object; do not collapse that separate sense into the “approve of doing” judgment pattern.
Construction
Cambridge distinguishes intransitive “approve of” for a favorable opinion from transitive “approve something” for official acceptance or authorization.
Decision
Use “approve of doing” when approve means think an action is good, acceptable, or suitable; “approve to do” is not the parallel complement for that meaning.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
approve — Cambridge Dictionary↗ (opens in a new tab)Cambridge Dictionary · Approve of marks a favorable opinion, including approve of an activity; transitive approve has the separate official-authorization sense.
Cambridge records “accuse someone of something” and specifically “accuse someone of doing something.” That supports of + -ing when the action is the alleged wrongdoing.
Cambridge records accustomed to something and gives -ing examples such as being accustomed to working or being treated in a particular way. Do not interpret the “to” after accustomed as an infinitive marker in this construction.
Cambridge distinguishes adapt to a situation or activity from transitive patterns such as adapting plans to fit new circumstances. The surface sequence “adapt … to + verb” therefore needs its grammatical structure identified before choosing an -ing form or infinitive.
Cambridge distinguishes “apologize to someone” from “apologize for something/doing something.” You can combine the two roles, as in “apologize to someone for doing something”; “to” marks the recipient while “for” marks the reason.
Oxford documents the person-action pattern as be banned + from + -ing and separately documents direct-object uses of ban. The cited evidence does not support person + to-infinitive as the equivalent prohibition construction.
Cambridge records bar + person + from + doing for officially preventing or disallowing an action. Bar also has direct-object and bar-to-place patterns, but person + to-infinitive is not the parallel action complement.
