"going out" or "to go out"

[Ladybeatrice]

Is there any difference between "I like to go out with my friends" and "I like going out with my friends"?

[Alan]

Hi ladybeatrice,

Welcome to the site. There is very little difference between these two:

[Mister Micawber]

.
And there are a few cases where the meaning is quite different, as in:

I can't remember hanging up the car keys.
I can't remember to hang up the car keys.

I stopped dancing at midnight.
I stopped to dance at midnight.
.
_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Alan]

Hi,

I find this a bit confusing:

[Guest]

.

[Alan]

Hi,

Not really. The difference between remember to do and remember doing remains the same. I merely pointed out that can't remember to sounds rather awkward.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Everything in the Garden is lovely

[Tom]

Dear Amy

If you are still on line, could you please tell me what Alan finds confusing about the keys; I simply could not get it Please

Ever yours

Tom

[Yankee]

Hi Tom

As I understand the discussion, the question is whether "remember to do" and "remember doing" are different or not. And then further, more specifically, whether the sentence "I can't remember to hang up the car keys." is an awkward (unnatural) sentence or not.

Maybe if we added the word "ever" to that sentence, it might be more natural (I don't think it's absolutely necessary, though.):
I can't ever remember to hang up the car keys.
That sentence means "I always forget to hang up the car keys (all the time)."

On the other hand, this sentence has a different meaning:
I can't remember hanging up the car keys.

This sentence means that I'm not sure whether I hung up the car keys or not. It only refers to one specific past time (Did I or did I not hang up the keys?). It's possible that I hung up the car keys, but because I can't specifically remember, I'm not sure.

Does that clarify things any?

Amy

[Tom]

Yes, a great deal !

Thanks a lot!

Tom