avoided
v.v. to stay away from someone or something. You do this when you do not want to deal with a person or a problem.
v. to keep away from or prevent the occurrence of something. Transitive — requires a direct object, which can be a noun phrase or a gerund.
I avoided the traffic by leaving early.
She avoided eye contact with her former boss while they were waiting for the same elevator.
The company avoided a public relations disaster by issuing a sincere apology and offering full refunds before the story reached the national news cycle.
The verb is transitive; when followed by another action, it requires the -ing form (gerund) rather than an infinitive.
he avoided to talk to mehe avoided talking to meAvoid must be followed by a gerund (-ing), not a to-infinitive.