Learn English – Active verbs with passive meaning when followed by ‘gerund’ or ‘to-infinitive’

active-voicegerundsinfinitive-vs-gerundpassive-voiceverbs

One of my friends told me that some verbs have passive meanings when they are followed by a gerund, and they have both active and passive meanings when they are followed by to-infinitive. I asked him about the name of those verbs, and requested him to give some examples. He told me that 'need, require and want' are such kind of verbs, but he couldn't give any examples.

Would anybody give some examples to make this topic clear? Are there other verbs except 'want, need and require', which follow the rules stated above?

Best Answer

As Araucaria exposed, after the verbs deserve, need, want and require, the —ing form has a passive sense.
Michael Swan's — Practical English Usage states that this is more common in BrE than AmE. The following examples are taken from his book:

—ing forms (4): after verbs

3   —ing form with passive meaning.

      » I don't think his article deserves reading = (...) deserves to be read.
      » Your hair needs cutting = (...) needs to be cut.
In informal British English, want can also be used like this.
      » The car wants servicing = (...) needs to be serviced.

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