Tenses Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The correct option is Have you been running?

The present perfect continuous describes an activity that has recently been going on and whose effect is visible now. Being out of breath is the present result of running just before, so 'Have you been running?' fits.

'Are you running?' asks about this very moment, which is odd when the person has stopped. 'Have you run?' stresses a completed action rather than the activity. 'You had been running' is past perfect and is not a question.

Answer: A

The sentence is in the Simple present tense.

Comes is the simple present form of come, with the -s ending for a third-person singular subject. The simple present is used for habits and regular actions, and the adverb regularly signals a habit.

It is not past tense (that would be came) or future (will come). A continuous tense needs a form of be with an -ing participle, as in is coming, which the sentence does not have.

Answer: C

The sentence is in the present perfect tense.

The present perfect is formed with has/have + past participle: has visited. It describes a past action whose result still matters now, here a set of experiences he has had up to the present, with no time stated.

The past perfect would be had visited. The plain present tense would be visits. The past continuous would be was visiting. Only the present perfect matches has visited.

Answer: A

The answer is have seen: I never have seen a tiger before, more usually I have never seen a tiger before.

The sentence describes the speaker's experience up to the present moment, which calls for the present perfect. Before here means 'before now', the typical time frame of the present perfect.

Had seen (past perfect) would need a past reference point, as in I had never seen a tiger before that day. Seen alone is a participle and cannot be the verb, and saw (simple past) does not express experience up to now in standard British usage.

Answer: C

The correct choice is would have purchased.

'Had I saved money' is an inverted form of 'If I had saved money', the past perfect of a third conditional. It speaks of an unreal past, and the main clause must take would have + past participle: 'Had I saved money, I would have purchased a new car.'

'Would purchase' belongs to the second conditional (If I saved money...), 'will purchase' to the first, and the simple past 'purchased' does not form a conditional at all.

Answer: C

The sentence is in the past perfect continuous tense.

The verb is had been waiting: had been plus the -ing form. This tense describes an action that began before a point in the past and was still going on up to that point, here the moment 'when I arrived'. 'For two hours' gives the duration, which is typical of the tense.

The past perfect would be had waited, the past continuous was waiting, and the simple past waited. None of them has the 'had been + -ing' form the sentence uses.

Answer: C

The sentence is in the future perfect tense.

The future perfect is formed with will have plus the past participle, here will have completed. It describes an action that will be finished before a stated point in the future, marked by by next year.

Simple future would be will complete, future continuous will be completing, and future perfect continuous will have been completing.