Be Nervous About Doing vs. Nervous To Do
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.
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
Choose the right form
| Meaning / situation | Construction | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| anxiety concerning an activity or upcoming action | nervous about + -ing | use the directly reviewed construction |
| a proposed “nervous to + verb” rewrite | do not infer a parallel rule from the title alone | prefer an attested construction unless your governing source or house style establishes the alternative |
Quick tests
Attested-pattern test
Is the intended meaning anxiety about performing an activity?
If yes: Use “nervous about + -ing” for the reviewed pattern.
If no: If you are considering “nervous to + verb,” do not treat it as a mechanically equivalent rule; rephrase or verify the intended construction.
Caveat: The cited evidence directly supports “nervous about + -ing”; this guide does not turn absence of evidence for a parallel complement into a universal ban.
Examples
She was nervous about presenting the findings.
“About + -ing” directly expresses anxiety concerning the activity.
He felt nervous before speaking to the committee.
A rephrasing can express the same situation without inventing a complement rule.
Use the attested pattern when the choice matters in edited prose.
The recommendation is evidence-bounded rather than a claim about every dialect or context.
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.
- Nervous about (opens in a new tab)Cambridge University Press · Direct dictionary evidence for nervous about + noun/-ing.