Grammar -ing form: Competitions

​Grammar -ing form

By Norra Ithnin

1

2

3

Multiple Choice

Choose the correct answer:

__________ in competitions helps students gain confidence.

• To participate

• Participating

• Participate

Multiple Choice

Choose the correct answer:

__________ your best in every challenge is more important than winning.

• Doing

• Do

• To doing

Multiple Choice

Choose the correct answer:

He’s interested in __________ a debate competition next month.

• to join

• join

• joining

Multiple Choice

Choose the correct answer:

The teacher congratulated the team on __________ first place.

• win

• winning

• won

Multiple Choice

Choose the correct answer:

They’re thinking about __________ a bigger-scale chess competition.

• organising

• to organise

• organise

Multiple Choice

Choose the correct answer:

We decided __________ part in the interfaculty competition.

• to take

• take

• taking

Here are common examples:

decide to do
plan to go
hope to win
want to join
agree to help
refuse to participate

​Some verbs in English are followed by the infinitive form (to + verb), not by the –ing form.
“Decide” is one of those verbs.

💡 Reason:

Multiple Choice

Choose the correct answer:

They suggested __________ another competition next semester.

• to enter

• entering

• enter

💡 Reason:

The verb suggest is always followed by –ing form or a that-clause, never by “to + verb.”
Example: "suggest taking" or "suggest that"

“Suggest” doesn’t take the infinitive because it already expresses an idea or proposal. Hence, the “to” would be redundant.

Multiple Choice

Choose the correct answer:

The coach advised us __________ calm before the final round.

• staying

• stay

• to stay

💡 Reason:

When the verb advise is followed by an object (someone), the next verb takes the infinitive form (to + base verb).

So the structure is:

advise + person + to + verb
BUT
When there is no object, “advise” can take –ing form instead.
Example: "The coach advised staying calm before the final round."

Pronunciation Challenge

Choose the word you hear!

Multiple Choice

Word 1

• thin

• think

• thing

Multiple Choice

Word 2

• win

• wink

• wing

Multiple Choice

Word 3

• ban

• bank

• bang

Multiple Choice

Word 4

• sin

• sink

• sing

Multiple Choice

Word 5

• ran

• rank

• rang

Multiple Choice

Word 6

• pin

• pink

• ping

Spot the silent letter!

Multiple Choice

Choose the word with a silent letter:

• apple

• knee

• water

Multiple Choice

Choose the word with a silent letter:

• climb

• carry

• call

Multiple Choice

Choose the word with a silent letter:

• honest

• hungry

• happy

Multiple Choice

Choose the word with a silent letter:

• right

• wrong

• rain