Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.

His mother was against his _____ football.

• A. play
• B. was playing
• C. played
• D. to play
• E. playing

Answer 1

The correct option is E playing

Gerunds are words that are formed with verbs but act as nouns. Gerunds also at times are seen to end in \'ing\'. In this particular sentence, the word in the blank acts a noun thus becoming the subject of the sentence and also like a verb by taking up the object. This means that in the blank, we would need a gerund.

Option E: Playing is a gerund as it behaves as a noun as well as a verb in the sentence

Option A and Option D: Play is the present perfect tense.

Options B: Is in continuous tense and is not a gerund.

Option C: Played is in the past tense.

Option E is correct