Do “can’t but + inf” and “can’t help + ing” have the same meaning?
‘Can’t help but loving it’
‘Can’t help but love it’
“can’t help but loving it” is incorrect. (“can’t help but verb-ing” is always incorrect.)
“can’t help but love it” and “can’t help loving it” are both OK. “can’t but love it” is possible but uncommon; to me it sounds literary or old-fashioned. These three all mean the same thing.
I’ve been learning that after prepositions the ing form is required.Why can’t it work in this example? Also what’s the difference between these 2 sentences:
They are doing nothing but bumming around.
They do nothing but complain.
Why the infinitive can follow a preposition(I thought that in all cases the ing form is compulsory after prepositions)?
In this case “but” is a conjunction not a preposition.
Both your two new sentences are correct. “bumming” matches “are doing”, and “complain” matches “do”.
“They do nothing but bum around.”
“They are doing nothing but bumming around.”
“They do nothing but complain.”
“They are doing nothing but complaining.”
The nuance is that the versions with “do” are talking in more general terms about habitual actions, and the versions with “doing” more about ongoing activity.
(A couple more spacing errors. You are missing a space between the first two sentences, and again before the opening bracket in the last sentence.)
Dozy,
What is the meaning of the following sentence?
“Can I bum a cigarette off you?”
It’s a slang term which means:
Will you give me a cigarette?