Question

请问avoid sth和avoid doing sth有何区别

比如avoid taxes 和 avoid paying taxes 哪个才是正确的说法，还是两个都对，但是从表达上来看好像第二个更加精确些，不知道各位怎么看。

Answer 1

在语言中，很多时候不能用“对”与“不对”来区分两个词或其用法。多数按表达习惯。

为了严谨，还是查了朗文和牛津：
avoid 后接名词或动词都是可以的（朗文中有一例句，如下）。我个人理解强调的重点不一样，前者表示避免产生这个税，后者表示避免交纳这个税，是有细微的区别。

1）to prevent something bad from happening

　Road safety is taught to young children to avoid road accidents.
　It is important to take measures to avoid the risk of fire.
avoid doing sth
　The refugees left to avoid getting bombed.
　Alan narrowly avoided an accident.
2）to stay away from someone or something, or not use something
　Everyone seemed to be avoiding Nick.
　She carefully avoided his eyes (=did not look directly at his face) .
　Pregnant women should avoid certain foods such as raw eggs.
　Why did you speak to him? You usually avoid him like the plague (=try hard to avoid him) .
3）to deliberately not do something, especially something wrong, dangerous, or harmful
　There are ways of legally avoiding taxes.
avoid doing sth
　You should avoid over-spending in the first half of the year.

希望对你有帮助，有问题还可以再问。

Answer 2

avoid 后接名词或动词都是可以的（朗文中有一例句，如下），但不可以加动名词。个人理解强调的重点不一样，前者表示避免产生这个税，后者表示避免交纳这个税，是有细微的区别。

1）avoid to prevent something bad from happening
　Road safety is taught to young children to avoid road accidents.
　It is important to take measures to avoid the risk of fire.
avoid doing sth

　The refugees left to avoid getting bombed.
　Alan narrowly avoided an accident.

2） avoid to stay away from someone or something, or not use something
　Everyone seemed to be avoiding Nick.
　She carefully avoided his eyes (=did not look directly at his face) .
　Pregnant women should avoid certain foods such as raw eggs.
　Why did you speak to him? You usually avoid him like the plague (=try hard to avoid him) .

3） avoid to deliberately not do something, especially something wrong, dangerous, or harmful
　There are ways of legally avoiding taxes.
avoid doing sth
　You should avoid over-spending in the first half of the year.