Poll: When they heard the news, they started ____.

hakermi

when they heard the news, they started to cray
here we have to verbs
start & cry , so the second should be in the infinitive form

Chuck Newman

I agree that "crying" and "to cry" both work.

genesis valencia

Crying (a gerund) or to cry (an infinitive) can both work as the object of the verb "Started". No one should argue because they are both correct. :)

Alessandro

after verbs BEGIN, START, STOP,...always put "verbING".

SimonB

Alessandron,
That is simply incorrect. You cannot have learned this from any grammar of English.