Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate option:
She felt ill after _________ the food.

• A. eat
• B. eating
• C. to eat
• D. eaten

Answer 1

The correct option is B eating

The word 'after' is a preposition here. When prepositions are followed by verb forms, the verb forms must end in -ing.

For example, 'She organizes her work by creating to-do lists.'

The same applies to the given sentence. The correct option must be a verb + ing form.

Option B: 'Eating' is a gerund that describes the action 'to eat'. It is most suitable for the given sentence, for reasons mentioned above. Hence option B is correct.

Option A: 'Eat' is a base verb and needs to be modified (with the help of preposition 'to', or it's used as a simple present tense verb) to be used in a sentence. It does not follow prepositions like 'after', hence A is incorrect.

Option C: 'To eat' is an infinitive and cannot follow another preposition ('to' is already a preposition). Hence C is incorrect.

Option D: 'Eaten' is a past participle and is used in present perfect tense. The tense of the given sentence is past. Hence D is incorrect.