Afraid of and afraid to?

[HiLine]

Hi all

Is there a difference in meaning between 'afraid of doing something' and 'afraid to do something'? My teacher says yes,I say no,how about you?

[armie480]

Hi HiLine

 

I would say there is no difference, except the usual difference between the gerund and the infinitive (process vs. action).

[HiLine]

Hi HiLine

 

I would say there is no difference, except the usual difference between the gerund and the infinitive (process vs. action).

 

That is what I believe;unfortunately,my English teacher would rather trust the 'English Grammar In Use' book,whose accuracy I really doubt

[armie480]

Hi HiLine

 

To support your teacher To prove the accuracy of 'English Grammar in Use', I have consulted Swan's 'Practical English Usage':

afraid

 

To talk about fear of things that happen accidentally, we prefer

afraid of + -ing

.

 

I don't like to drive fast because I'm

afraid of crashing

.

'Why are you so quiet?' 'I'm

afraid of waking

the children.'

 

In other cases we can use

afraid + -ing

or

afraid

+ infinitive

with no difference in meaning.

 

I'm not afraid

of telling / to tell

her the truth.

Thanks for drawing our attention to this word. :)

[wasleys]

:devil:

OK, so let's stir things up a bit in this thread.

 

'I'm afraid of waking the children.' 'I'm afraid to wake the children.'

 

In those I think there can be a difference of meaning, but only because of the colloquial usage of afraid in the first to imply worry rather than fear.

 

Michael

[HiLine]

Now I'll specifically tell you what my teacher actually said in an example:

I didn't like the look of the food on my plate

---->I was afraid to eat it.

---->I was afraid of making my self ill.

 

I wrote:

I was afraid of eating it.

I was afraid to make myself ill.

--->SHE THOUGHT I DID THEM BOTH WRONG!

 

Another example:

I don't usually carry my passport with me

--->I am afraid of losing it (my sentence) --->WRONG AGAIN! (she said it should have been 'afraid to lose'?????)

Being so confused,right after coming home,I looked up my Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and found that those two structures were the same meaning!

[wasleys]

Now I'll specifically tell you what my teacher actually said in an example:

I didn't like the look of the food on my plate

---->I was afraid to eat it.

---->I was afraid of making my self ill.

 

I wrote:

I was afraid of eating it.

I was afraid to make myself ill.

--->SHE THOUGHT I DID THEM BOTH WRONG!

 

Another example:

I don't usually carry my passport with me

--->I am afraid of losing it (my sentence) --->WRONG AGAIN! (she said it should have been 'afraid to lose'?????)

Being so confused,right after coming home,I looked up my Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and found that those two structures were the same meaning!

HiLine,

 

Correctness may depend on context, but in your examples I think:

 

I didn't like the look of the food on my plate …

 

... I was afraid of making my self ill - OK

... I was afraid of eating it -OK

... I was afraid to eat it - OK, but probably only if followed by '… because/in case …'

... I was afraid to make myself ill - WRONG

 

 

I don't usually carry my passport with me …

 

... I am afraid of losing it - OK

... I am afraid to lose it - WRONG, or at least strange usage

 

Michael

[economicus]

As well as I know, AFRAID TO is used only for what you do intentionally. AFRAID OF = unintentionally.

 

For example: Many people are afraid to go out at night. (They believe it's dangerous, so they don't go out.)

 

I didn't go near the dog because I was afraid of being bitten.

(There is no intention from your side.)

 

Or: I was afraid to go near the dog because I was afraid of being bitten.

 

Your teacher was right. You was afraid to eat it (so you didn't eat it) because you was afraid of making yourself ill.

[economicus]

So, you are afraid to do something because you are afraid of something happening as a result. (also: You are afraid of spilling the drinks and NOT to spill the drinks.)

 

I see your teacher uses a book: Murphy: English grammar in use. All these senteces are from it. If you don't have it, buy it right now!! It's ingenious. It will both challenge and richly reward those that study it!

 

And this book also claims that your teacher is wrong at the last sentence.

 

It should have been: I don't usually carry my passport with me. I'm afraid of losing it. If she doesn't believe it, tell her to look into this book. It's from it.

[HiLine]

Should I trust the 'Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary' or the 'English Grammar In Use',economicus?

[economicus]

I would rather follow a grammar book than dictionary.

 

...and... your dictionary is from Oxford, but "grammar in use" is from Cambridge. We know which one is better, don't we?:whistle: :D

[HiLine]

I would rather follow a grammar book than dictionary.

 

...and... your dictionary is from Oxford, but "grammar in use" is from Cambridge. We know which one is better, don't we?:whistle: :D

 

I don't know:whistle::D

[BabyDino]

I would say Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary is not enough in terms of grammar. You don't the see difference just because the dictionary doesn't mention it.

 

Totally agreed with economicus. Here I just add what I have from A Practical English Grammar written by A.J. Thomson and A.V. Martinet to make it a bit clearer.

 

Be afraid of + gerund is used to express an action which the subject fears may happen. It is normally an involuntary action:

He never swam far out. He was afraid of getting cramp.

She avoids lonely streets. She is afraid of being mugged.

She didn't tell him because she was afraid of upsetting him.

 

Be afraid + infinitive means that the subject is/was etc. too frightened to perform the action. This is obviously a deliberate action:

He was afraid to jump. (so he didn't jump)

She was afraid to protest. (so she kept quiet)

 

So your teacher made sense. Because you were afraid of making yourself ill (which you feared might happen), you were afraid to eat it (too frightened to eat it).

 

As to the last sentence, I think you were correct. You don't usually carry your passport with you because you are afraid of losing it (which you fear may happen).

 

My 2 cents.

[HiLine]

Could you have a look at this: http://www.dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=1480&dict=CALD

and this: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=afraid

 

Then what do you think?

[BabyDino]

That the dictionaries don't mention the difference between be afraid of and be afraid to does not mean there is no difference. To study grammar, you should rely on grammar books.

 

People use dictionaries mainly to look up vocabularies, not grammar. The advanced dictionaries are big enough, don't you think? Imagine how bigger they would be if people stuffed more grammar things into them :whistle: :D