would you like living in...?

[Fan Of Arabian Horses]

Hi all,

I`d like to know whether the to infinitive is strongly required in the following sentence:

......would you like living in that house?.........

or is the one and only correct way to say it the next one?

.....would you like to live in that house?.........

Thanks for clarification in advance.

Michael

[Natasha81]

I guess, the better variant would be "Would you like to live in that house? The verb "Like" can be used with both infinitive and gerund; however, there is a difference in meaning. When you say "I like doing something", it denotes habitual action, something that you do a lot and enjoy doing.
e.g. I like playing soccer, I like going to the movies, I like living in my big house.

If you do not live in that house, living there cannot be possibly a habitual action:) Since it is not your house. Therefore, the question should be "Would you like to live in that house?"
If you speak about something hypothetically, it can’t be something that you usually do.
e.g. I’d like to go to Paris and I like going to Paris. A wish versus habitual action.

That's what I think. I hope, we will get more replies,

Natasha.

[Milanya]

I wonder, what prompted such unusual punctuation: dots, then lowcase letter at the beginning of a sentence, then some more dots?

It looks like Fan Of Arabian Horses went out of his way to make his question difficult to read and understand.
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con·text - The part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning.

[Natasha81]

Fan of the Arabian Horses,

Please have a look here:

http://www.englishpage.com/gerunds/part_3.htm

[Fan Of Arabian Horses]

Hi Natasha, hi Milanya,

First of all I´d like to thank Natasha for pointing out the difference between both possibilities and think you´re right with it. The site you point to confirms your explanation which is quite clear and easily understandable.

Milanya, it wasn´t my intention to confuse anyone here and all the dots were supposed to refer to the fact that it was just an independant part of a Live chat. Here the full context that might give deeper insight to the meaning:

Eric, would you like living in that house? http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1457397 I don´t think building a garage would be sensible.

Whereupon Eric claimed that using the gerund is basically wrong.

Please let me know what you think about the to-infinitive - gerundium issue with regard to the above chat?

Thanks

Michael

PS. in case typing in my moniker scares you call me FOAH simply.

[Alan]

Hi Michael,

This choice of infinitive or gerund after those troublesome verbs that can take either is back to those two old codgers, specificity and generality. In other words - I like to do something suggests something in particular and I like doing something is a general activity.

Charlie likes to drink tea without milk.

Mavis likes drinking tea.

The best examples I can think of as I sip my morning tea!

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Too Many Words

[Fan Of Arabian Horses]

Thanks Alan,

I take it this way:

You like drinking tea usually and liked to drink tea particularly this morning.

Even if I fail here, I hope you enjoyed your tea this morning

Michael