5 exercises — choose the correct verb form (infinitive or gerund) after verbs like suggest, manage, regret, recommend, stop, and decide in IT and engineering contexts.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
The senior engineer suggested ___ the monolith into microservices before the next release cycle.
"Suggest" always takes a gerund, never an infinitive. Other verbs that follow the same gerund-only pattern include: recommend, consider, avoid, finish, keep, practise, risk, delay, and miss. "Suggested to decompose" is a very common mistake for non-native speakers. Correct: "suggested decomposing the monolith."
2 / 5
The DevOps team managed ___ the deployment with zero downtime despite the database migration.
"Manage" takes an infinitive (to + verb). It expresses the idea of succeeding at something after effort. Other verbs that take infinitives include: agree, decide, expect, fail, hope, learn, need, plan, promise, refuse, and want. "Managed completing" is ungrammatical in standard English.
3 / 5
We regret ___ that the API will be deprecated in the next major version release.
"Regret + infinitive" is used to express regret about something you are about to say or do — it is a formal speech-act pattern common in professional announcements: "We regret to inform you..." means "We are sorry to have to tell you..." By contrast, "regret + gerund" refers to past actions: "We regret not testing earlier." In technical communications and formal emails, "regret to inform/announce/advise" is the standard pattern.
4 / 5
The architect recommended ___ a read-through cache before ___ any changes to the database schema.
Both slots require gerunds for different reasons. First, "recommend" always takes a gerund: "recommended implementing." Second, "before" is a preposition, and prepositions are always followed by gerunds in English, never infinitives: "before making any changes." This two-reason question tests both verb-pattern knowledge and prepositional grammar simultaneously.
5 / 5
The team stopped ___ the codebase and instead decided ___ an entirely new system.
"Stop + gerund" means to cease an ongoing action: "stopped maintaining" = they no longer maintain the codebase. "Stop + infinitive" would mean to pause in order to do something else ("stopped to fix a bug" = paused what they were doing in order to fix it). "Decided" takes an infinitive: "decided to build." This tests a classic gerund/infinitive meaning contrast alongside a standard infinitive pattern.