Question

b) Begging is a curse on humanity.
(State whether the underlined word is gerund or present participle.)​

Answer 1

Begging is a gerund

Answer 2

Begging, is used as gerund in this case.

• When a word has "ing" in its ending, then there will be two possibilities.

1. The word is acting like a verb for any kind of continuous tense along with an auxiliary verb.
2. The word is acting like a noun in the sentence, which will be a gerund.

• In the given sentence, the "ing" added word begging is acting as the main subject of the sentence.
• That's why, it will be considered as a gerund.