Enjoy takes an -ing complement when it is followed by another verb: “enjoy reading,” “enjoy meeting people.” A direct “enjoy to read” pattern is not standard in the reviewed construction.
ReviewedEvidence2 sourcesSectionEnglish Usage
Quick answer
Use “enjoy doing,” not “enjoy to do,” when you mean getting pleasure from an activity. Cambridge explicitly uses the -ing form after enjoy and rejects the direct to-infinitive.
Key details
Confusion Familygrammar-and-usage distinction
Rule Familyverb complement pattern
TermsEnjoy Doing, Enjoy To Do
Further guidance
Boundary
Enjoy can also take a noun or reflexive object, so the -ing rule applies specifically when the complement itself is another verb.
Construction
Cambridge’s grammar entry states that enjoy is followed by the -ing form and not by a to-infinitive.
Decision
Choose “enjoy doing” for an activity that gives pleasure.
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 documents both admit + -ing and admit to + -ing for acknowledging something. Other passive patterns such as “be admitted to be” are separate constructions.
Both patterns are standard. “Advise waiting” recommends an action generally or in context, while “advise him to wait” names the person who is advised to perform it. A that-clause is another standard option.
When “afford” is followed directly by another verb, standard learner references use a to-infinitive: “afford to do.” An -ing form can appear elsewhere in a sentence, but it is not a like-for-like direct complement after “afford.”
“Agree to do” expresses consent to take an action. An -ing form normally follows a preposition in patterns such as “agree with doing,” which expresses approval rather than the direct promise-to-act construction.
Cambridge documents aim + to-infinitive for intention and aim at for directing effort toward an objective. Do not omit the preposition and present bare “aim doing” as equivalent to “aim to do.”
“Allow” can take an activity as its object, as in “allow smoking,” or a person/thing followed by a to-infinitive, as in “allow visitors to enter.” The patterns answer different structural questions: what is allowed versus who is allowed to do what.
