Instruct Someone To Do vs. Instruct Someone In Doing
Instruct + person + to-infinitive gives a formal direction or order. In the teaching sense, instruct can instead take in/on + a subject or activity; the prepositional phrase names what the person is trained in rather than functioning as the same command complement.
ReviewedEvidence1 sourceSectionEnglish Usage
Quick answer
Use “instruct someone to do something” for a formal direction. Use “instruct someone in/on …” for teaching a subject or activity; the two patterns express different relationships.
Key details
Confusion Familygrammar-and-usage distinction
Rule Familyverb-complement and object pattern
TermsInstruct Someone To Do, Instruct Someone In Doing
Further guidance
Boundary
An -ing form after “in” is inside a prepositional teaching phrase, not an alternative to-infinitive command complement.
Construction
Cambridge documents instruct + person + to-infinitive for formal orders and instruct someone in/on something for teaching.
Decision
Choose to + verb when directing an action; choose in/on + subject or activity when describing the field or skill being taught.
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.
Oxford directly documents “argue somebody into doing something” for persuading somebody by giving reasons. The cited construction evidence directly supports into + -ing; it does not license “argue someone to do” as an equivalent complement pattern.
When ask means request an action from a person, Cambridge documents ask + person + to-infinitive. Bare “ask doing” is not the ordinary request complement for that meaning.
Cambridge directly documents both badger + object + into + -ing and badger + object + to-infinitive for repeated pressure or requests that push someone toward an action. The verb also covers repeated questioning, so context must show whether the sentence is about persistent persuasion or interrogation rather than assuming every use names a requested action.
Cambridge directly illustrates bamboozle + object + into + -ing for deceiving someone so that the person takes an action. The cited entry does not establish bamboozle + object + to-infinitive as an equally documented alternative, so this guide does not manufacture a two-way rule.
Cambridge explicitly documents beg + object + to-infinitive for an urgent request and also records beg for + noun and other request patterns. A following -ing form may appear elsewhere in a sentence, but it is not the ordinary replacement for the documented object + to-infinitive request construction.
Cambridge gives direct evidence for beguile someone into doing something in the literary persuade/attract/deceive sense. The cited entry supports the into + -ing construction; it does not establish beguile + object + to-infinitive as an equivalent pattern for this meaning.
