Prone to + infinitive/ -ing? (2025)

Hi,

Give us an example, please.

Rocstar

I found both structures on the Corpus Of Contemporary American English and the British National Corpus.
<<Moderator note: Please do not abbreviate the titles of these corpora. Many people have never heard of them and have no idea what COCA and BNC might represent. panjandrum>>
He's prone to gain weight. MacMillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners
Sun removes the oil and wax leaving the leather prone to cracking. Oxford Collocations

I've been comparing the examples but I cannot figure out why prone to is sometimes followed by to infinitive and other by -ing verbs. In theory prone to is a preposition and therefore it should be followed by nouns/pronouns or -ing verbs.

Perhaps this is the only case when to can be both a particle and a preposition at the same time!!

Thanks for the advice panjandrum, and for your post!!

I found more information in the third edition of Michael Swan's Practical English Usage: " A few verbs and adjectives are used with to before nouns, but are followed by the infinitives of verbs. Examples are agree, consent, entitled, inclined, prone." " Accustomed can be followed by to + -ing or an infinitive."

And actually, attempt, intend, continue, can't bear, be accustomed to and be committed to can be followed by either the to inf or the -ing without much difference in meaning.

I've always thought it was either the to inf. or the -ing, and now thanks to prone I've found out about these other forms.

Thanks everybody.

Do I have to say:
This plant is prone to get attacked by bugs.
or
This plant is prone to getting attacked by bugs. ?

Thank you in advance.

Hello thankful1,

In AE, it would be more common to say, This plant is prone to attacks by bugs.

As cuchu points out, the construction is prone to + <noun>, hence why attacks (plural noun) sounds good.

However, gerunds can also be used since they are essentially verbal nouns, so prone to being (getting) attacked sounds OK to me, even if not quite as elegant. (It'd be fine in conversation.)

One thing is for sure: prone to be/get attacked is wrong because prone to does not take a verb.

Well, I am a little confused.
My dictionary writes "prone to do something" and uses the following example:
Kids are all prone to eat junk food.

But you have told me that "prone to" is followed by gerund.

It sounds better to my ears to say eating there, but maybe others prefer the normal verb, eat.

The dictionary.com entry says:

2. Having a tendency; inclined: paper that is prone to yellowing; children who are prone to mischief.

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...which uses a gerund (yellowing) and a noun (mischief).

This particular entry comes from the American Heritage dictionary, so perhaps there it is an AE peculiarity.

Edit: Marky agrees but is also an AE speaker.

Prone can be followed by either the infinitive or the gerund (as well as by common-or-garden nouns) - see this previous thread: Prone to infinitive/ to -ing?

For me, there's a slight difference in meaning between "kids are prone to eat junk food" and "kids are prone to eating junk food". I'll have to go away and wrap my head in a wet towel before I try to explain it, though...

Loob said:

Prone can be followed by either the infinitive or the gerund (as well as by common-or-garden nouns) - see this previous thread: Prone to infinitive/ to -ing?

For me, there's a slight difference in meaning between "kids are prone to eat junk food" and "kids are prone to eating junk food". I'll have to go away and wrap my head in a wet towel before I try to explain it, though...

Click to expand...

Hello, Loob. I'd be really thankful to you if you would give it a try, the post is ancient, though.

Loob said:

Prone to infinitive/ to -ing?
For me, there's a slight difference in meaning between "kids are prone to eat junk food" and "kids are prone to eating junk food". I'll have to go away and wrap my head in a wet towel before I try to explain it, though...

Click to expand...

Explain please!

Loob said:

Prone can be followed by either the infinitive or the gerund (as well as by common-or-garden nouns) - see this previous thread: Prone to infinitive/ to -ing?

For me, there's a slight difference in meaning between "kids are prone to eat junk food" and "kids are prone to eating junk food". I'll have to go away and wrap my head in a wet towel before I try to explain it, though...

Click to expand...

I realize that I am replying to a 10-years-old comment. I wanted to point out the circular reference. The "see this previous thread" link points back to this same thread.

I am still trying to find a crisp explanation of prone to + noun vs -ing vs inf. Can any of them be used in any case? Are instances where one would be correct while others wouldn't? Are there regional differences?

If you don't fix the root cause, the defect is prone to reoccurrence.
If you don't fix the root cause, the defect is prone to reoccur.
If you don't fix the root cause, the defect is prone to reoccurring.

For some reason, in this case I like the inf version most. But replace "reoccur" with "happen again", and I almost need the -ing version. And while I would't use "reocurrence" here (and I don;t even know how to use a proper noun in place of happen again / happening again) I would be ok with "prone to repetition".

Can anybody please reference or quote some "authoritative" grammar book on this subject? (Yes, I know that, unlike Spanish, there are no "authorities" in English, hence the quotes).

Gabriel said:

I wanted to point out the circular reference. The "see this previous thread" link points back to this same thread.

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Thank you. The threads must have been merged after my post 17.
Even after ten years, I'm still unable to explain the difference.

[1] *Ed is prone to eat candy.
[2] Ed is prone to eating candy.

In both examples, the underlined element is a complement -- of an adjective in [1] and of a preposition in [2].

But the adjective "prone" doesn't license an infinitival clause with eat as complement, and hence [1] is ungrammatical.

The preposition "to", however, can freely take gerund-participial clauses as complement, and hence [2] is fine.

I think "tend to" is often more appropriate. People are prone to do, or be inflicted with, something nasty. I'm not so sure I'd use it much when talking about inanimate things.

<be prone to>, <be likely to>, <tend to>

That's what 'licensing' is all about. The admissibility of a complement depends on the head (verb, adjective etc.) belonging to a subclass of that particular head. If an expression doesn't work as complement to a particular head, we say that the head doesn't license (specifically permit or allow) that expression.

The adjective "prone" happens not to license an infinitival clause whose verb is "eat", which is why *Ed is prone to eat candy is ungrammatical.

billj said:

The adjective "prone" happens not to license an infinitival clause whose verb is "eat", which is why *Ed is prone to eat candy is ungrammatical.

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I don't think that can be true, billj. Here's an example:

Surprisingly, teens who had heightened brain responses associated with reward, memory and visual attention to commercials for healthier foods—like salads and smoothies—from fast food restaurants were also prone to eat more junk food.​

(Source: University of Michigan: Healthy commercial ads don't change teens' desire to eat junk food)

Yes, it's all about doing things that are bad for you, or being, say, prone to certain illnesses.

Prone to eat junk food, food that is demonstrably unhealthy.
Prone to eat candy. Candy, in moderation, isn't all that bad for you. Kids tend to eat candy more than adults do.

If a person is prone to doing some particular thing, they do it sometimes.

But saying a person is prone to do some particular thing, if it is grammatical at all, is saying they may do it in the future, whether or not they have ever done it before.