When learning grammar in school, I was taught that any verb after the word "to" should be in present tense and no participles.
i.e. To play instead of to playing, or to sleep instead of to sleeping etc.
So, which sentence is correct?
Looking forward to see you.
or
Looking forward to seeing you.
Best Answer
There's two different things going on here, both of which use the word to, which is probably what's confusing you.
The rule your teacher taught you applies to infinitives, in the context of sentences where there are two verbs, like
The verb following to is in the present tense, as is expected. In this case, to is known as a "particle," which is basically a word that doesn't fit into nice grammatical categories, but has some meaning.
Is not correct.
However, what's happening here is that to is a preposition connected to the adverb forward, which is modifying looking.
You look forward to nouns. These sentences are all acceptable:
So in this case, you have to use a gerund, the noun form of a verb following forward to. In English, the gerund is identical to the present progressive, so you get sentences like
Each of these sentences are acceptable, and use a gerund (verbal noun). You can't use other forms of the verb after the preposition to, you can't say: