Take To Doing vs. Take To Do

Key details

Confusion Familyverb complement choice

Rule Familyverb complement licensing

TermsTake To Doing, Take To Do

Choose the right form

Decision table for Take To Doing vs. Take To Do
Meaning	Pattern	Decision
begin doing something as a habit or regular practice	take to + -ing	Use the documented phrasal/prepositional pattern.
the “to” belongs to another take construction	take + ... + to-infinitive, where separately licensed	Keep unrelated structures separate.
directly express the habitual-beginning sense as “take to do”	take to do	Do not treat the infinitive as the parallel complement for this sense.

Quick tests

Habit-beginning test

Do you mean begin an activity and make it a habit or regular practice?

If yes: Use “take to + -ing.”

If no: A different sense of “take” may use a different structure; do not transfer this rule automatically.

Caveat: Here “to” is prepositional, so the following verb is an -ing form in the reviewed construction.

Examples

Example

He took to walking before breakfast.

The -ing form names the activity that became a regular habit.

Example

She has taken to checking the forecast each morning.

The perfect construction keeps “to + -ing.”

Example

After moving nearby, they took to cycling to work.

The activity became a regular practice.

Further guidance

Boundary

This sense of take to uses prepositional to; do not confuse it with unrelated take + to-infinitive structures.

Construction

Oxford documents take to doing something for beginning to do something as a habit or regular practice.

Decision

Use take to + -ing for the documented habitual-beginning sense.

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.

take to (opens in a new tab)Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries · Preferred lexical authority directly documenting take to doing something.

Related guides

English Usage

Accustom Yourself To Doing vs. Accustom Yourself To Do

Cambridge directly gives accustom yourself to followed by an -ing form for becoming familiar with new conditions. The to belongs to the prepositional construction accustom yourself to something; do not infer an equivalent to-infinitive from the surface word to.

English Usage

Apply Yourself To Doing vs. Apply Yourself To Do

Oxford documents apply yourself to (doing) something for working hard and attentively at a task. This apply-yourself construction takes prepositional to; other senses of apply use different complements and should not be merged into this pattern.

English Usage

Be Busy Doing vs. Busy To Do

Cambridge directly documents busy + -ing for being occupied with an activity, and separately documents too busy to do something. Busy doing and too busy to do are different constructions with different meanings. Do not treat bare busy to do as a direct alternative to busy doing.

English Usage

Be Capable Of Doing vs. Capable To Do

Cambridge directly documents capable of something/doing something for having the ability, power, or qualities needed to do something. The documented adjective complement is capable of + noun or -ing form; do not replace the prepositional complement with capable to + infinitive on the basis of meaning alone.

English Usage

Be Good At Doing vs. Good To Do

Cambridge directly documents be good at something/doing something for being skilled or successful at an activity. Good to + infinitive can occur in other constructions and meanings, but it is not a substitute for the documented skill construction be good at + -ing.

English Usage

Be Reduced To Doing vs. Be Reduced To Do

Oxford directly documents reduce somebody/something to (doing) something, usually in the passive, for being forced into a worse state or action. Here to introduces the resulting state or activity; the authority does not establish an equivalent be reduced to + bare infinitive pattern.

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Grammar Verb Forms