Grammar – To Pay or To Paying?

grammarsentence-structure

In Arnel's Everday English Youtube video there is the following exchange:

A: The client is refusing to pay. She owes us 1500

B: Maybe she'll agree to paying in installment

why does B is using "to paying" rather than "to pay" to answer A's question?

Best Answer

"agree to pay" would be a normal way of expressing this. (agree to pay in installments)

But it is grammatically valid to have "agree to (something)" For example

He agreed to a short lunch break.

The structure here is "Agree + prepositional phrase"

A prepostional phrase can also be formed from "to(preposition) + gerund/participle phrase".

Gerunds are verbs ending in -ing.

However the meaning is pretty much the same as "agree + to-infinitive"

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