Gerund or infinitive: changes of meaning

Several essential English verbs take both gerunds and to-infinitives, but alter their meaning fundamentally based on the complement chosen.

While many English verbs strictly govern either a gerund or an infinitive, a vital group of verbs can take either complement, with each choice producing a distinct semantic distinction. The core verbs undergoing meaning changes are remember, forget, regret, stop, try, and go on. With remember, forget, and regret, the gerund refers to an action that occurred prior to the mental state (I remember meeting her in Berlin; I will never forget winning that trophy; He regrets resigning). Conversely, the to-infinitive looks forward to a necessary responsibility, task, or impending statement (Remember to lock the gate; Don't forget to pay the bill; I regret to inform you that your application was unsuccessful). With stop, stop doing terminates the activity itself (She stopped drinking coffee), while stop to do indicates pausing one ongoing activity in order to initiate another purpose (While walking home, he stopped to buy a newspaper). With try, try doing means testing an experiment to see if it solves a problem (If your computer freezes, try restarting it), whereas try to do denotes making an active effort to achieve a difficult goal (He tried to lift the heavy stone but failed).