Question

Correct the underlined part of the sentence if necessary:
Diane hasn't been at work yesterday.
   (A) didn't be
   (B) hadn’t been
   (C) wasn't
   (D) no error

Answer 1

Hint: A complete sentence is correct only if you are applying grammar rules correctly. Tenses are important in English grammar. Tenses of a verb are used to define the particular state or situation of something. In English, there are three main tenses- present, past, and future.

Complete answer:
In the above question, we are talking about the presence of a person in the context of yesterday.
Yesterday means the day before today that refers to the past tense because the day has already ended. The underlined part in the question ‘hasn’t been’ is in the present perfect tense.
The present perfect tense says about a situation that just happened or in-state that either occurred at an indefinite time in the past. The rule of the present perfect tense is subject + has/have + past participle + object. For example- I have watched this play.
Therefore, option(D) is incorrect and there is an error in the sentence.
Option(A) ‘didn’t be’ ‘be’ refers to the existence and ‘do’ refers to an action. So, ‘didn’t be is grammatically incorrect. Both don’t go together. Option(A) is incorrect.
Option(B) ‘hadn’t been’ is in the past perfect tense. Past perfect tense expresses a situation that completed in the past before another situation happened in the past.Option(B) is incorrect.
Option(C) ‘wasn't’ indicates a past situation that happened in the past. This option agrees to the given sentence and gives a complete meaning. Option(C) is correct .

Note:
In English grammar rules should be applied correctly. Tense plays an important role in forming a sentence. There are three main tenses-present, past, future. The above sentence was in the past tense as there mentioned yesterday so the sentence should be in the correct past tense. Therefore, ‘wasn’t ‘ giving the sentence the correct meaning. So, the correct answer is an option (c)- wasn’t. Diane wasn’t at work yesterday.