Cambridge directly licenses nervous about something/doing something. The guide treats that prepositional complement as the supported pattern and avoids symmetry not established by the source.
ReviewedEvidence1 sourceSectionEnglish Usage
Quick answer
Use “nervous about doing something” when the anxiety concerns an activity or event. The cited Cambridge construction is nervous about + -ing, so do not invent a parallel “nervous to do” complement rule.
Key details
Confusion Familyverb-complement
Rule Familyverb-complementation
Termsnervous about doing, nervous to do
Further guidance
Core difference
Cambridge directly documents nervous about + noun/-ing for anxiety concerning an event or activity.
Style Boundary
Do not infer a bare nervous + to-infinitive alternative as interchangeable when the cited construction is nervous about + -ing.
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.
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.
