Which of the following sentences contains a gerund? A. The price of prime commodities keeps on increasing. B. Each household head needs to learn how to prioritize needs over wants in the family. C. Teaching a child to save money is a good habit. D. Both a & c.
The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
Correct Answer: C. Teaching a child to save money is a good habit.
Explanation:
A gerund is the -ing form of a verb that functions as a noun in a sentence. It can act as a subject, an object, or a complement.
Let’s examine each sentence to identify whether it contains a gerund:
A. The price of prime commodities keeps on increasing.
- The word increasing is an -ing form, but in this sentence, it functions as part of the verb phrase “keeps on increasing.”
- Here, increasing is not used as a noun but as part of the progressive verb phrase, so this is not a gerund.
B. Each household head needs to learn how to prioritize needs over wants in the family.
- This sentence contains the phrase to learn, which is an infinitive, not a gerund.
- There are no -ing words functioning as nouns in this sentence.
C. Teaching a child to save money is a good habit.
- In this sentence, Teaching is the subject of the sentence.
- It is a verb in its -ing form, but it functions as a noun (What is a good habit? Teaching a child to save money).
- Therefore, Teaching is a gerund.
D. Both A & C.
- As analyzed above, only sentence C contains a gerund used correctly as a noun. Sentence A does not contain a gerund.
Conclusion:
Only sentence C includes a gerund used as a noun. The subject Teaching is a gerund that names the action and functions as a noun in the sentence. Thus, the correct answer is C.
