Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
They like _____ very much.
A) Sail
B) Sailed
C) Sailing
D) Sails

Answer 1

Hint: There are certain parts of speech that help us understand the structure of a sentence and also help us form grammatically correct sentences. Every sentence contains a subject (that does the action), verb (the action) and object (recipient of the action).

Complete answer:
In the given sentence, we have a subject ‘they’, a verb ‘like’ and a phrase adverb ‘very much’. There is no object for the verb in this sentence. Therefore, we need to fill the blank with an object. The object must contain a noun. Hence, we need a noun to fill the blank.

Now let us analyze the given options:
Option A) Sail – ‘Sail’ is a verb and a noun as well. To use it as a verb, we need to put the word ‘to’ before it. For e.g. They like to sail. Using the word ‘sail’ as a noun is inappropriate in this sentence. Thus, this option is wrong.
Option B) Sailed – ‘Sailed’ is the past tense form of the verb ‘sail’. It is also a verb and not a noun. Correct usage would be “He sailed north.” Thus, this option is wrong, as it is not a noun.
Option C) Sailing – ‘Sailing’ is the present participle or the progressive or the continuous form of the verb ‘to sail’. It is also called the –ing form and it indicates that a verb is happening and has not yet ended. But, the –ing verb can also be used as a noun. For e.g. Smoking and drinking are both injurious to one’s health. Since it is working as a noun, it can also be the object of the sentence. Therefore, this is the correct option.
Option D) Sails – The word ‘sails’ is a verb. For e.g. He sails every day. The word ‘sails’ can also be used as a noun. For e.g. The sails of the ships were broken. Therefore, by filling the blank with ‘sails’ we can form the sentence “They like sails very much.” It is also a grammatically correct sentence meaning that the subject is fond of ‘sails’. ‘Sails’ are the huge pieces of cloth fixed to the mast, which is used to harness the wind and give direction and speed to a boat or a ship.

Thus, the correct answer is both option ‘C’ and ‘D’
Option (C) They like sailing very much; and
Option (D) They like sails very much.

Note: The subjects and the objects in a sentence must always contain a noun or a pronoun in order to be grammatically correct. Sometimes, we also use the –ing form of a verb as a noun. For e.g. his singing is terrible. Here, the word ‘singing’ is the subject because this verb is acting as a noun. This is an example of a gerund.