Be Reluctant To Do vs. Reluctant Doing
Cambridge lists reluctant with a to-infinitive for unwillingness or hesitation. The page therefore preserves the documented infinitive construction and rejects inferred gerund symmetry.
Use “reluctant to do something.” Cambridge directly documents reluctant + to-infinitive; a bare “reluctant doing” complement is not licensed by that evidence.
Key details
Choose the right form
| Meaning / situation | Construction | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| unwillingness or hesitation before an action | reluctant + to-infinitive | use the documented infinitive construction |
| a proposed bare gerund complement | reluctant + -ing | do not infer this as a parallel complement from the adjective alone |
Quick tests
Infinitive-complement test
Does “reluctant” express hesitation about taking the following action?
If yes: Use “reluctant to + verb.”
If no: If you have a bare “reluctant + -ing” complement, recast it unless another independently reviewed construction supports it.
Caveat: The reviewed source directly licenses the to-infinitive pattern; this does not claim that every imaginable gerund nearby is impossible in every larger sentence.
Examples
She was reluctant to reopen the discussion.
The infinitive names the action she hesitated to take.
They were reluctant to sign the revised agreement.
The documented complement is “to + base verb.”
For edited prose, do not create a bare “reluctant doing” complement by analogy with adjectives that take gerunds.
The recommendation follows the attested complement pattern.
Further guidance
Core difference
Cambridge directly documents reluctant + to-infinitive.
Style Boundary
Do not replace the documented to-infinitive complement with a bare gerund by analogy.
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.
- Reluctant (opens in a new tab)Cambridge University Press · Direct dictionary evidence for reluctant + to-infinitive.