Cambridge directly documents inclined to do and a literary inclined to something pattern. The guide uses those attested constructions instead of the preliminary, insufficiently supported toward-doing wording.
ReviewedEvidence1 sourceSectionEnglish Usage
Quick answer
“Be inclined to do something” is a documented infinitive pattern. Cambridge also records a literary “inclined to something” construction; the two should be described as attested structures, not forced into a gerund/infinitive symmetry.
Key details
Confusion Familyverb-complement
Rule Familyverb-complementation
Termsinclined to do, inclined to something
Further guidance
Core difference
Cambridge documents inclined to + infinitive for a tendency or preference and also a literary inclined to + noun pattern.
Style Boundary
Do not recast the noun-complement pattern as an unsupported “inclined toward doing” rule without direct evidence for that proposed contrast.
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.
Inclined to↗ (opens in a new tab)Cambridge University Press · Direct dictionary evidence for inclined to + infinitive and literary inclined to + noun.
Cambridge directly records amazed + to-infinitive and amazed at + complement, making it an evidence-safe replacement for the unsupported Satisfied proposal.
Oxford directly records both ashamed + to-infinitive and ashamed of + noun/pronoun. The guide compares those attested structures without inventing an unsupported parallel complement.
Oxford directly documents averse to (doing) something. This is a prepositional to + noun/-ing construction, so a bare infinitive should not be assumed to be an interchangeable complement.
Oxford documents the idiomatic adjective pattern bent on (doing) something for determination. The evidence does not license a parallel bent + to-infinitive complement for that same meaning.
