Question Gerund VS to-Infinitive

Hello, native English speakers,
Would you check my sentences including gerund or to-infinitive?

1 She tried wearing the hat.
2 Mike wants to play soccer every day.
3 Jane stopped watching TV.
4 He finished reading this book yesterday.
5 Do you remember visiting this castle thirty years ago?
6 (a) I tried to read the book in French, but I couldn't.
(b) I tried to read the book written in French, but I couldn't.
7 I often enjoy swimming in this lake.
8 (a) He decided to go to that country alone.
(b) He decided to go to that country by himself.
9 (a) When we arrived at the ball park, it began to rain.
(b) When we arrived at the ball park, it started to rain.
(c) When we arrived at the ball park, it began raining.
(d) When we arrived at the ball park, it started raining.
10 We hope to go to America someday.
11 (a) Has Tom finished writing the letter? Yes, he has.
(b) Has Tom finished writing the letter yet? Yes, he has.
12 (a) I like to watch soccer games on TV.
(b) I like watching soccer games on TV.
13 Would you mind helping us?
14 (a) Watching baseball games on TV is fun.
(b) It is fun to watch baseball games on TV.
15 (a) I stopped to look at the flower carefully.
(b) I stopped to look carefully at the flower.

Thanks in advance.
Hirashin

All look ok to me.

Yes, all ok, apart from 6b. Just say "the book in French". "the book written in French" sounds like you're trying to explain which one a certain book is out of a selection of different books, as opposed to talking about the French - language version of the same book.

Also, are these sentences for students to translate or are you going to give them the Japanese to write the English version? Just wondering because for some of them you can use the infinitive or the gerund.

Thanks for the help, mdchachi and Michael2.

An American person says:
Number 1 is correct, but sounds like an unusual scenario.
I would use it if she was unhappy with her wardrobe and trying to
coordinate an outfit that worked, with no success, so then "she tried
wearing the hat" (knowing that it fit her already) to see if it improved
her outfit.

If she didn't already know if the hat fit her, we would say "She tried the hat on."
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What do you think about his opinion?

hirashin said:

Thanks for the help, mdchachi and Michael2.

An American person says:
Number 1 is correct, but sounds like an unusual scenario.
I would use it if she was unhappy with her wardrobe and trying to
coordinate an outfit that worked, with no success, so then "she tried
wearing the hat" (knowing that it fit her already) to see if it improved
her outfit.

If she didn't already know if the hat fit her, we would say "She tried the hat on."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What do you think about his opinion?

Click to expand...

It's true that when we try clothes for fitting, the common way to say it is "try on."
However as s/he said, your sentence sounds fine depending on the context.
Since these are stand-alone sentences used for educational purposes, there is no point for such deep analysis.

hirashin said:

Thanks for the help, mdchachi and Michael2.

An American person says:
Number 1 is correct, but sounds like an unusual scenario.
I would use it if she was unhappy with her wardrobe and trying to
coordinate an outfit that worked, with no success, so then "she tried
wearing the hat" (knowing that it fit her already) to see if it improved
her outfit.

If she didn't already know if the hat fit her, we would say "She tried the hat on."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What do you think about his opinion?

Click to expand...

Yes, I would agree with them. It is interesting because it is exactly this that is the difference between "try to do" and "try doing". If you try to do something you attempt it but may or may not succeed, but if you try doing something you do it and see if the result is good or not, so if you "tried putting the hat" on it would mean you put the hat on and saw what the result was, whereas the usual phrase to see if something fitted would be to "try something on".