1
Question
Look at the verb in italics and say whether it is a Gerund or Participle:
Do you like smoking cigarettes?
Look at the verb in italics and say whether it is a Gerund or Participle:
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Solution
The correct option is A Gerund
A gerund is a form of a verb that ends in -ing and functions as a noun, whereas a participle is a verb form (verb + ing) that functions as an adjective. Since both forms (gerund and present participle) end with an -ing, it's often confusing to decide which one it is in a sentence. Gerunds function as the subject, object, object of a preposition and so on.
In the given sentence, "smoking cigarettes" is the object of the verb "like", where "smoking" is a gerund.
A way of finding out if the verb form is a gerund or a participle is: replace that verb form with 'something', if the sentence still means the same, then it is a gerund. Upon replacing 'smoking cigarettes' with 'something', the sentence means 'do you like something', it hasn't quite changed in meaning.
Hence option A is correct. It's tricky as the word is followed by the noun 'cigarettes', but all words that modify nouns are not adjectives (here, participles). Hence, 'smoking' is not a participle.
"Smoking" in this sentence does not perform as an adjective, so it's not a participle and option B is incorrect.
A past participle typically ends in -ed, the past participle form of 'to smoke' is 'smoked', but here the verb form is 'smoking', hence option C is incorrect.
There is no such term as Future participle, hence option D is incorrect.
A gerund is a form of a verb that ends in -ing and functions as a noun, whereas a participle is a verb form (verb + ing) that functions as an adjective. Since both forms (gerund and present participle) end with an -ing, it's often confusing to decide which one it is in a sentence. Gerunds function as the subject, object, object of a preposition and so on.
In the given sentence, "smoking cigarettes" is the object of the verb "like", where "smoking" is a gerund.
A way of finding out if the verb form is a gerund or a participle is: replace that verb form with 'something', if the sentence still means the same, then it is a gerund. Upon replacing 'smoking cigarettes' with 'something', the sentence means 'do you like something', it hasn't quite changed in meaning.
Hence option A is correct. It's tricky as the word is followed by the noun 'cigarettes', but all words that modify nouns are not adjectives (here, participles). Hence, 'smoking' is not a participle.
"Smoking" in this sentence does not perform as an adjective, so it's not a participle and option B is incorrect.
A past participle typically ends in -ed, the past participle form of 'to smoke' is 'smoked', but here the verb form is 'smoking', hence option C is incorrect.
There is no such term as Future participle, hence option D is incorrect.
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