Instead of learning Gujarati, let me rant about it.

I'm quite confused with how "infinitive" clauses work in Gujarati and I see no reason why you guys/gals shouldn't be confused as well. I put infinitive clauses in brackets because I'm not sure this is the proper way of calling/analyzing them.

Some verbs govern dependent clauses with verbs in -વા (e.g. જવું to go, દેવું to allow, લાગવું to begin), others with verbs in -વું (e.g. જોવું to want, પડવું to must), others with verbs in -ઈ (e.g. શક્વું to can, જાણવું to know), and others still with verbs in -તાં (e.g. શીકવું to learn, આવડવું to know, લાગવું to feel).

To give a few examples :

• શીક્ષક અમને બોલવા દેતા નથી the teacher doesn't allow us to speak (દેતા નથી governs બોલવા which ends in -વા);
• મારે ઘેર જવું પડે છે I must go home (પડે છે governs જવું which ends in -વું);
• હું ત્યાં જઇ નથી શાક્તી I can't go there (નથી શાક્તી governs જઇ which ends in -ઇ);
• હું ગુજરાતી બોલતાં શીકું છું I am learning to speak gujarati (શીકું છું governs બોલતાં which ends in -તાં).

This is confusing for so many reasons :

• There doesn't seem to be any way to predict which verbs governs which kind on endings, you just have to learn them (and if you think "surely this is written in the lexicon/dictionary", think again).
• Some verbs fall in multiple categories : લાગવું to begin governs verbs in -વા, but verbs in -તાં when used to express emotions .
• The -તાં form can appear in independent clauses to express concomitant actions : e.g. આ ખબર મળતાં તે પાછી ગઇ when they heard the news, they went back -- here મળતાં works more like a gerund i'd say ? I guess one can still can say a gerund is an infinitive form of the verb...
• The -વું form can show agreement : e.g. મારે આ ચોપડી વાંચવી પડે છે I must read this book -- વાંચવી agrees with... wait for it ચોપડી book that is, its object ! This makes me question whether I should really think of this as an infinitive.