Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.

The girls ___ in the garden are my sisters.

• A. played
• B. to play
• C. playing
• D. on playing
• E. are playing

Answer 1

Answer: (C)

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 A: played is the past tense again. It is the wrong option

Option B: Play is in the present tense. Both of them don't behave as a noun.

Option C: Playing is a gerund as it behaves as a noun in the sentence

Option D and E: Are in the continuous present tense and it does not act as a noun.

Option C is correct