Fill in the blank with the appropriate gerund or infinitive from the options given below:
Have you finished _________ your house for Deepawali?
a. clean
b. cleaning
c. cleaned
d. none of these

Hint: You must choose the option that possesses the suffix ‘ing’.

Complete answer:

The Present Tense denotes those actions that are taking place in the present scenario. To frame verbs in the present tense, you must conjugate the infinitive of the verb. Conjugate means to make the verb match the subject. ‘Infinitive’ refers to the ‘to form’ of a verb. E.g. - to meet.
Gerunds are also known as the Present Participle. They are referred to as the ‘ing’ form of a verb. Example - playing. We use gerunds when we are framing tenses in the Continuous form or the Continuous Perfect form.
Let us examine the options given above.
Option ‘a’ clean – This verb has been conjugated in the Simple Present Tense. It does not end with the suffix ‘ing’. Therefore, it is an incorrect answer.
Option ‘b’ cleaning – This verb ends with the suffix ‘ing’. Therefore, it is a gerund. This means that it is the correct answer.
Option ‘c’ cleaned – This verb ends with the suffix ‘ed’. Therefore, it is a past participle. This means that is an incorrect answer.
Option ‘d’ none of these - This option is not applicable as we have proved option ‘b’ to be the correct answer.
Option ‘b’ is the correct answer.

Note: The infinitive is the root form of the verb. By conjugating the infinitive of the verb, you get additional forms such as auxiliary, gerunds, etc.