Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
They like ____________ very much.

• A. Sail
• B. Sailed
• C. Sailing
• D. Sails

Answer 1

Answer: (C)

Sailing

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: Sail is in the present tense and it acts only as a verb

Option B: Sailed is the past tense of sail

Option C: Sailing is a gerund as it behaves as a noun as well as a verb in the sentence

Option D: It is the third person present of the verb sail

Option C is correct