Question

Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate words.

The drunk was _____ against a lamp-post _____ to himself.

• A. leaning / talking
• B. leaning / talked
• C. leaned / talking
• D. leaned / talked

Answer 1

Answer: (A)

leaning / talking

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.

Lean and talk are in the present tense.

Leaned and Talked are the past tense of the actual words given above. This eliminates option B,C and D

Leaning and talking are gerunds as they play dual role

Option A is correct