Committed To Doing vs. Committed To Do

Key details

Confusion Familygrammar-and-usage distinction

Rule Familypreposition and verb-complement pattern

TermsCommitted To Doing, Committed To Do

Choose the right form

Decision table for Committed To Doing vs. Committed To Do
Meaning / situation	Form / construction	Decision
dedicated to an activity or course of action	committed to + -ing	Use the -ing form after the prepositional “to.”
commit a resource for a purpose	committed + object + to-infinitive	A sequence such as “committed funds to do X” has a different structure.

Quick tests

Structure test

Does “to” introduce the activity or course of action someone is committed to?

If yes: Use the -ing form: “committed to doing …”

If no: If a noun object intervenes, analyze that different structure instead of treating it as the same complement.

Examples

Example

The team is committed to improving response times.

The activity follows the prepositional “to.”

Example

The board committed funds to replace the equipment.

Here “funds” is the object, so the later infinitive belongs to a different structure.

Example

Do not use the second structure as evidence that bare “committed to do” is the direct alternative.

The syntactic roles are different.

Further guidance

Boundary

A nearby sequence such as “committed funds to do something” has a different structure; it does not make bare “be committed to do” the direct alternative to “be committed to doing.”

Construction

Cambridge Business English explicitly records commit to doing something in the promise/commitment sense.

Decision

Use “committed to doing” when “to” introduces the activity or course of action you are committed to.

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.

commit — Cambridge Dictionary (opens in a new tab)Cambridge Dictionary · Commit to can be followed by doing; Cambridge Business English explicitly records commit to doing something

Related guides

English Usage

Accuse Someone Of Doing vs. Accuse Someone To Do

Cambridge records “accuse someone of something” and specifically “accuse someone of doing something.” That supports of + -ing when the action is the alleged wrongdoing.

English Usage

Accustomed To Doing vs. Accustomed To Do

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.

English Usage

Adapt To Doing vs. Adapt To Do

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.

English Usage

Apologize For Doing vs. Apologize To Do

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.

English Usage

Approve Of Doing vs. Approve To Do

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.

English Usage

Ban Someone From Doing vs. Ban Someone To Do

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.

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Grammar Verb Forms