My favourite hobby is... 'reading' or 'to read'?

[Lady Liz]

Hello everyone!

Could the structures above be used interchangeably? Let me give you a more specific example: "

My typical free-time activity is singing (/to sing) and playing (/to play) the piano." / "Something that I really enjoy doing is to cook (/cooking)."

Thank you all!

 

[Raymott]

No, those structures aren't interchangeable, and can sometimes mean the opposite of each other.
You want 'reading', 'singing', 'playing' and 'cooking'.

An example of opposites with 'verbing' and 'to verb':
"I stopped working."
"I stopped to work."

 

[Lady Liz]

Does "I stopped to work" mean 'I stopped doing something to start my work at my workplace'?

 

[Raymott]

Does "I stopped to work" mean 'I stopped doing something to start my work[STRIKE] at my workplace'[/STRIKE]?

Yes, more or less.