Learn English – Should we always use “verb+ ing” structure after the verb “start”

complementationgerunds

As far as I know, after the verb "Start" we should use verb + ing structure. For example:

  • I have to start doing the exercises.

What if we use the verb "start" in present continuous?Is is correct to say/write :

  • I am starting doing the exercises.

Or we should change it in the following way:

  • I am starting to do the exercises.

Best Answer

The verb start takes complement clauses with either the marked infinitive or -ing forms, and there is no consistent difference in meaning between the two.

Consequently, both of your examples are grammatical. However, the version with the infinitive will usually be better, as it avoids using two -ing forms close to each other. This preference is generally acknowledged in contemporary linguistics and goes by the name horror aequi principle, a Latin phrase meaning, literally “aversion to the same thing”:

The horror aequi principle involves the widespread (and presumably universal) tendency to avoid the repetition of identical and adjacent grammatical elements and structures. —Gunter Rohdenburg, “Cognitive complexity and horror aequi as factors determining the use of interrogative clause linkers in English”, in Rohdenburg and B. Mondorf, Determinants of Grammatical Variation in English, 2003.

Another article in the same volume, U.Vosberg, “The Role of extractions and horror aequi in the evolution of -ing complements in Modern English”, states that

In many languages, we observe a strong aversion to the (immediate) co-occurrence of identical or similar grammatical structures. Thus, the establishment of -ing complements has been significantly delayed after matrix verbs appearing in the shape of -ing forms themselves. Such contexts tend to favour either the to-infinitive as verb complement or other alternatives (like nominal objects or finite clauses).

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