English UsageComparison guide

Be Pleased To Do vs. Pleased About Something

Cambridge directly records pleased + to-infinitive and pleased about + noun/event, supporting a narrow complement comparison.

Quick answer

Use “pleased to do something” when satisfaction or willingness is expressed through an infinitive action. Use “pleased about something” when the complement names the situation or event producing satisfaction.

Key details

Confusion Familyverb-complement
Rule Familyverb-complementation
Termspleased to do, pleased about something

Further guidance

Core difference

Cambridge documents pleased + to-infinitive and pleased about + noun/event as standard patterns.

Style Boundary

Keep the comparison to the documented structures; do not manufacture an unsupported pleased-about-doing versus pleased-to-do rule.

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.

  1. Pleased (opens in a new tab)Cambridge University Press · Direct learner-dictionary evidence for pleased with, pleased about, pleased that, and pleased + to-infinitive constructions.

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Oxford directly records both ashamed + to-infinitive and ashamed of + noun/pronoun. The guide compares those attested structures without inventing an unsupported parallel complement.

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Be Averse To Doing vs. Averse To Do

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.

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Be Bent On Doing vs. Bent To Do

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.

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