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priyanshu14
Dear Experts, please guide on this topic. I also have same doubt. Doing exercise is correct or not?

Thanks

This is probably a language/idiom issue. In English, you don't say someone is 'doing exercise,' though that might be the *literal* translation from some other languages. (For instance, in spanish, the literal translation of "to get in line" is "to make a tail" (like the 'tail' of an animal).

If you translate "Haz la cola" (spanish for 'get in line') to the literal "make a tail," people in English won't understand. Similarly, if you literally translate "Get in line" into the spanish "Gonsigue en la linea" the spanish-speaking person probably won't understand.

An English person would understand "doing exercise," but it's much more common to just use the verb "To exercise."

In the sentence here, you can use the gerund form of that verb 'exercising.'

The difference between the noun 'exercise' and the gerund 'exercising' is a subtle one. The best I can describe, I think, is 'exercise' means more the *concept* of 'working out for health and fitness' and the gerund 'exercising' means the *actual activity* of 'working out for health and fitness.' In many, many instances, the difference would probably not matter.

"I hate exercise" and "I hate exercising" would mean basically the same thing, though someone who said the first could be argued to hate the whole concept of 'exercise' and someone who said the second might mean they hate to... 'do exercise.'

The reason the sentence in the book says you should choose 'exercising' over 'exercise' is because it 'exercising' is parallel with the other gerund, 'earning good grades.'

The odd thing about the word 'earning' is that there' actually not a good analogue to 'exercise.' A linguist might be able to tell you why, but I'm just not sure why for some words we have both gerunds AND nouns-for-the-concept (exercising, exercise; play (noun form), playing) but for some we only have gerunds (earning, riding--"ride" can be a noun, but it doesn't mean the 'concept of riding,' it means a specific instance in which someone traveled via vehicle or animal (a single horseback ride, for instance).

Anyway. This more than you probably wanted to know! But just a fun little diversion into language.

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