Urge + person + to-infinitive is the ordinary pattern for strongly encouraging a named person. Direct action complements such as urge + -ing are possible in more compressed or formal uses, but they do not supply the same explicit person role.
ReviewedEvidence2 sourcesSectionEnglish Usage
Quick answer
Use “urge someone to do something” when naming who is being encouraged. Use a direct action complement only where the register naturally treats the proposed action itself as what is being urged.
Key details
Confusion Familygrammar-and-usage distinction
Rule Familyverb-complement and object pattern
TermsUrge Someone To Do, Urge Doing
Further guidance
Boundary
Urge also takes noun complements such as “urge caution” and that-clauses; those patterns should not be collapsed into the two constructions compared here.
Construction
Cambridge documents urge + person + to-infinitive; grammar reference evidence also records direct -ing complements with urge in the smaller class of verbs that can recommend an action.
Decision
Prefer the object + to-infinitive pattern for a named addressee. Treat direct -ing after urge as an action-focused alternative, not as a way to attach the same person object.
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 directly documents urge + object + to-infinitive and also gives an into + -ing example in which pressure leads someone into an action. The constructions differ in framing: the to-infinitive directly names what a person is urged to do, while into + -ing presents movement or pressure into the resulting action; this guide does not treat them as mechanically interchangeable.
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.
