Common errors in the use of gerunds

Incorrect: They were counting on me helping them.
Correct: They were counting on my helping them.
Incorrect: They insisted on me resigning the post.
Correct: They insisted on my resigning the post.
Gerunds should be used with possessive pronouns (my, your, her), and not object pronouns (me, him etc). Note that this rule is not strictly observed especially in the case of proper nouns.
Incorrect: I am thinking to write my autobiography.
Correct: I am thinking of writing my autobiography.
Incorrect: The clever girl was confident to win the first medal.
Correct: The clever girl was confident of winning the first medal.
Incorrect: I am hopeful to secure a loan to build my house.
Correct: I am hopeful of securing a loan to build my house.
Certain verbs and adjectives are  followed by a preposition + gerund. Examples are: think, desirous, despair, fond, confident, prevent, abstain, refrain, prohibit etc.
Incorrect: To die with honor is better than living with dishonor.
Correct: To die with honor is better than to live with dishonor.
Incorrect: Alice likes singing, dancing and to paint.
Correct: Alice likes singing, dancing and painting.
Your writing will be clearer if you use parallel structures in both clauses.
Incorrect: There is no hope of the fog’s lifting.
Correct: There is no hope of the fog lifting.

Question words

                                                     QUESTION WORDS

Questions about the subject

When we ask questions about the subject of a sentence, the word order in the question and the answer is the same:

Ben designed this house.     

Who designed this house?

X Who did build this house?

/ Who built this house?

• We use what, who, which, whose and how many in-questions about the subject.

Questions about the object

Questions about the object need an auxiliary verb (do, have, is, etc.) before the subject:

Wren designed this cathedral.

What did Wren design?

• We use what, which, who, whose, when, where, how often, etc. in questions about the object.
X Which cathedral Wren built?
/ Which cathedral did Wren build?

Question word	Example: subject question	Example: object question
Who	Who is teaching you?	Who do you know here? (Whom is very formal.)
What	What caused the problem?	What film did you see?
What kind of	What kind of people live here?	What kind of TV programmes do you watch?
Which	Which book sold most?	Which picture do you like?
Whose	Whose book won the prize?	Whose book did you borrow?
How many	How many pupils came to the lesson?	How many people did you see?
Why		Why did you get up so late?
When		When did you go to England?
How		How do I get to your house?
How far		How far is the college from here?
How long How often		How long does it take to get there? How often do you go swimming?

Exercise about subject or object question.

Look at the following prompts and decide if the required question is a subject or object question.
Choose the correct questions using the following prompts. You should ask a question about the word underlined:
. I bought a newspaper this morning.
    What bought you this morning?
    What did you buy this morning?
    What you did buy this morning?
2. Something odd happened during the storm last night.
    What happened during the storm last night?
    What did happen during the storm last night?
3. One of the students didn't do the final exam.
    Who didn't the final exam do?
    Who didn't do the final exam?
4. I wrote a romantic letter to one of the teachers.
    Who did you write a romantic letter to?
    Who wrote you a romantic letter?
5. Something disturbed me when I was working.
    What did you disturb when you were working?
    What disturbed you when you were working?
    What did disturb you when you were working?
6. I dreamt about a strange animal last night.
    What did you dream about last night?
    What dreamed about you last night?
7. Somebody rang me at 3am last week!
    Who did you ring at 3am last week?
    Who you rang at 3am last week?
    Who rang you at 3am last week?
8. Someone gave me a watch for my birthday.
    Who gave you a watch for your birthday?
    Who did give you a watch for your birthday?