Cambridge records benefit from for the source of an advantage, and Cambridge grammar treats a verb after a preposition as an -ing form. That supports benefit from + -ing when the beneficial source is an action.
ReviewedEvidence2 sourcesSectionEnglish Usage
Quick answer
Use “benefit from doing” when an action is the source of an advantage. “Benefit to do” is not the parallel direct-complement pattern for that meaning.
Key details
Confusion Familygrammar-and-usage distinction
Rule Familypreposition and verb-complement pattern
TermsBenefit From Doing, Benefit To Do
Further guidance
Boundary
This guide covers the source-of-benefit construction. It does not claim that a to-infinitive can never appear later in a sentence where it serves another grammatical role.
Construction
Use benefit from + noun or -ing clause to identify what produces the advantage.
Decision
Use “benefit from doing” when an action is the source of an advantage. “Benefit to do” is not the parallel direct-complement pattern for that meaning.
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 records “accuse someone of something” and specifically “accuse someone of doing something.” That supports of + -ing when the action is the alleged wrongdoing.
Cambridge records accustomed to something and gives -ing examples such as being accustomed to working or being treated in a particular way. Do not interpret the “to” after accustomed as an infinitive marker in this construction.
Cambridge distinguishes adapt to a situation or activity from transitive patterns such as adapting plans to fit new circumstances. The surface sequence “adapt … to + verb” therefore needs its grammatical structure identified before choosing an -ing form or infinitive.
Cambridge distinguishes “apologize to someone” from “apologize for something/doing something.” You can combine the two roles, as in “apologize to someone for doing something”; “to” marks the recipient while “for” marks the reason.
Cambridge distinguishes intransitive “approve of” for a favorable opinion from transitive “approve something” for official acceptance or authorization. The official-authorization sense uses transitive “approve” with an object; do not collapse that separate sense into the “approve of doing” judgment pattern.
Oxford documents the person-action pattern as be banned + from + -ing and separately documents direct-object uses of ban. The cited evidence does not support person + to-infinitive as the equivalent prohibition construction.
