ENJOY + verb-ING

The phrase “enjoy + ing” is used to describe an activity that someone finds pleasurable. In the sentence “Panda enjoyed reading, building, and solving puzzles,” the word “enjoyed” is in the past tense and is used to describe an action that has already happened. The words “reading,” “building,” and “solving puzzles” are all in the present participle form, which is formed by adding “-ing” to the base form of the verb.

Panda enjoyed reading, buildingand solving puzzles.

White Lie

It’s important to note that not all verbs can be used in this construction. Verbs that describe emotions, such as “like,” “love,” and “hate,” can be used with the “-ing” form of a verb, but other verbs may require a different construction. For example, “I want to read this book” uses the infinitive form of the verb “to read” instead of the present participle form.


In the English Grammar Profile, A2 point 28 in the category of VERBS/patterns:

‘enjoy’ followed by the ‘-ing’ form.


enjoy + ing in corpora

Here are search results in iWeb corpus for:

ENJOY _VVG

1 ENJOY WORKING 15550
2 ENJOYED READING 12553
3 ENJOY PLAYING 12353
4 ENJOY READING 11886
5 ENJOY WATCHING 11164
6 ENJOY USING 9039
7 ENJOYED WORKING 7176
8 ENJOY SEEING 6860
9 ENJOY MAKING 5850
10 ENJOYED WATCHING 5513
11 ENJOY SPENDING 5316

enjoy spending time with my family.

PELIC STUDENT: Chinese level 4 writing class.

12 ENJOYED PLAYING 5295
13 ENJOYS WORKING 4869
14 ENJOYS PLAYING 4628
15 ENJOY GETTING 4608
16 ENJOY GOING 4265
17 ENJOY LEARNING 4239
18 ENJOY TAKING 3662
19 ENJOYED SEEING 3492
20 ENJOY HELPING 3062
21 ENJOY LOOKING 3012
22 ENJOY LISTENING 3008
23 ENJOYED USING 2905
24 ENJOY EATING 2845
25 ENJOYED LEARNING 2513
26 ENJOY EXPLORING 2510
27 ENJOY LIVING 2437
28 ENJOY SHARING 2332
29 ENJOYED MAKING 2330
30 ENJOYS TRAVELING 2293
31 ENJOY HEARING 2145
32 ENJOYED GETTING 2058
33 ENJOY MEETING 2032
34 ENJOY TALKING 2029
35 ENJOY CREATING 1909
36 ENJOY WRITING 1849
37 ENJOY WEARING 1776
38 ENJOYS WATCHING 1710
39 ENJOY COMING 1682
40 ENJOYED SPENDING 1669
41 ENJOYED MEETING 1654
42 ENJOYS HELPING 1582
43 ENJOY HIKING 1563
44 ENJOY TRAVELING 1524
45 ENJOYED GOING 1488
46 ENJOYED TAKING 1430
47 ENJOYED LISTENING 1362
48 ENJOY RIDING 1354
49 ENJOYS HIKING 1295
50 ENJOY SHOPPING 1268
51 ENJOY TRYING 1254
52 ENJOY TEACHING 1244
53 ENJOYS WRITING 1237
54 ENJOYED LOOKING 1235
55 ENJOYS SHARING 1201
56 ENJOYS GOING 1189
57 ENJOY VISITING 1166
58 ENJOYED HEARING 1136
59 ENJOYED TALKING 1112
60 ENJOY COOKING 1087
61 ENJOYED WRITING 1084
62 ENJOY WALKING 1070
63 ENJOY DRIVING 1044
64 ENJOYS TAKING 1026
65 ENJOY BROWSING 1022
66 ENJOYS TEACHING 1003
67 ENJOYS READING 1001
68 ENJOY GIVING 995

He is kind and enjoys giving people things or helping them.

PELIC STUDENT: Chinese level 2 writing class.

69 ENJOY SITTING 973
70 ENJOYS MAKING 964
71 ENJOYING PLAYING 961
72 ENJOY INTERACTING 915
73 ENJOYS SPENDING 906
74 ENJOY RUNNING 902
75 ENJOYS GETTING 839
76 ENJOY FINDING 819
77 ENJOYS EXPLORING 811
78 ENJOYING WATCHING 787
79 ENJOY DRINKING 786
80 ENJOY STAYING 780
81 ENJOYED CREATING 766
82 ENJOY PUTTING 755
83 ENJOY SHOOTING 753
84 ENJOY VIEWING 751
85 ENJOY HANGING 732
86 ENJOYED SHARING 702
87 ENJOYS LEARNING 694
88 ENJOYING USING 681
89 ENJOYS SEEING 672
90 ENJOYING WORKING 660
91 ENJOYED LIVING 657
92 ENJOYING READING 645
93 ENJOY KEEPING 641

I started writing letters to my grandma last year

 and I found that I really enjoy keeping in touch 

with people that way.

apracticalwedding.com

94 ENJOYS CREATING 633
95 ENJOYED EXPLORING 628
96 ENJOY RECEIVING 625
97 ENJOY RELAXING 622
98 ENJOYS USING 620
99 ENJOY SINGING 567
100 ENJOY KNOWING 561


A2 Verb-ing:

keeping, receiving, sharing, spending, trying