A method of controlling intra-inter prediction for decoding or encoding of a video sequence, is performed by at least one processor. The method includes determining whether one or more neighboring blocks in a video sequence is coded by an intra prediction mode, entropy coding a prediction mode flag of a current block by a first context in response to determining that at least one of the neighboring blocks is coded by the intra prediction mode, and entropy coding the prediction mode flag of the current block by a second context in response to determining that none of the neighboring blocks are coded by at least the intra prediction mode.