English

There are three main tenses, Present, Past and Future. These tenses are further divided into four sub categories each. Hence, making the total to 12 tenses. These are:

Present Tense:

• Simple Present
• Present Continuous
• Present Perfect
• Present Perfect Continuous

Past Tense:

• Simple Past
• Past Continuous
• Past Perfect
• Past Perfect Continuous

Future Tense:

• Simple Future
• Future Continuous
• Future Perfect
• Future Perfect Continuous

The following table depicts the best books for tense which the students can refer to:

Here are some simple examples of gerunds used in sentences:

• He enjoys running. (Object)
• Her passion is dancing. (Subject Complement)
• He avoids eating sugar. (Direct Object)
• They talked about shopping. (Object of a Preposition)
• She's afraid of skydiving. (Object of a Preposition)

A participle and a gerund both end with '-ing'; however, they play different roles. A gerund acts as a noun, whereas a participle acts as an adjective or helps in forming verb tenses.

Examples:

• Singing loudly annoys the neighbors. (Gerund phrase, subject)
• The singing bird woke me up. (Participle, describing a bird)

The '-ing' form of a verb is called the present participle. It can act as:

• A gerund (noun)
• A participle (adjective)
• Part of a continuous tense

Examples:

Cooking is relaxing. (Gerund)

The boiling water is hot. (Present Participle)

She is cooking dinner now. (Continuous Verb)

In English, a gerund phrase is a gerund plus any object, modifier, or complement that goes with it. Just like a gerund, a gerund phrase also works as a noun. 

Example: Watching movies at night helps me relax.

Here, Gerund is “Watching” and Modifier is “movies at night”.

A gerund is a verb ending with '-ing' and functioning as a noun. Gerunds in English grammar can be used in many positions:

• As a subject
• As an object
• As a subject complement

For example, His hobby is painting.

It is important to improve vocabulary and understand the usage of grammar for the CDS exam English section. Candidates can check here some of the books that can help in the preparation-"Word Power Made Easy" by Norman Lewis, Wren & Martin's High School English Grammar & Com, etc.