Tenses Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The answer is have, heard: 'We have just heard the most extraordinary verdict today.'

'Just' with a recent action, in the period 'today' that is still running, calls for the present perfect: have plus the past participle 'heard'.

'To hear' gives no finite verb, 'will hearing' mixes a modal with an -ing form, and 'can heard' puts a past participle after a modal, which needs the base form.

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.

Answer: B

The correct form is had read: She realised that she had read the same book many years ago.

The main verb realised is in the past. Reading the book happened earlier still, many years ago, so the earlier past action takes the past perfect, had read. The parallel clause but had forgotten the ending confirms the tense.

Simple past read does not mark the action as earlier than the realising. Was reading describes an action in progress, not a completed one. Has read is present perfect, which cannot be combined with many years ago or follow a past-tense reporting verb here.

Answer: C

The correct form is will have expanded.

By the end of the next fiscal year sets a deadline in the future, and the expansion is to be complete before it. An action finished before a point in the future takes the future perfect: will have + past participle.

Will expand states a future action but not its completion by the deadline. Will be expanding is future continuous and describes the process as ongoing at that time. Expands is simple present and does not fit a completed future action with by.