Question

Choose the appropriate verb form to fill in the blanks:
I saw an accident last night. Somebody _________ (call) an ambulance but nobody _______ (injure) so the ambulance ___________ (not / need).
a. Had called; injured; not needed
b. Called; was injured; wasn’t needed
c. Had called; was injured; wasn’t needed
d. Had called; injured; was not needed

Answer 1

Hint: Consider the scope of the action’s commencement and termination in the past.

Complete answer:

The Past Tense denotes those actions that have already taken place in the past.
There are four types of past tenses:
The Simple Past Tense is used when the action is indefinite in the past. It doesn’t make use of any auxiliary verb.
The Past Continuous Tense is used when the action is continuous in the past. The infinitive form of such verbs is preceded by the auxiliary was.
The Past Perfect Tense is used when the action has been completed in the past itself. The infinitive form of such verbs is preceded by the auxiliary had.
The Past Perfect Continuous Tense is used when an action is expected to continue up until a point in the past. The infinitive form of such verbs is preceded by the auxiliary had been.
In the above question, there are three actions that we must consider. We know that the first action happened in the past and that it was completed before the next actions could occur. Therefore, the action is in the Past Perfect Tense.
The second and third action’s scope is continuous in the past. This means that their tense is the Past Continuous Tense. These actions also have to be negated as specified in the question. Following the rules of conjugation, the correct answer is option ‘c’ had called; was injured; wasn’t needed.

Note: To avoid making errors, consider when the action started and ended in the past.