Question

"What__?”
"I don't know. Look it up."
Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
A) does this word mean
B) means this word
C) does mean this word
D) is meaning this word

Answer 1

Hint: In a sentence, verbs are the action words that describe what the subject is doing. Verbs, like nouns, are the most important portion of a sentence or phrase because they tell a story about what is happening.

Complete answer:
 An auxiliary verb is a verb that is used to generate tenses, moods, and tones, among other things. Let us analyze the given options.
Option A) does this word mean- The subject of the given sentence “this word” is singular. Therefore the sentence suggests the use of simple present tense. In the sentence “does” is used as an auxiliary verb. The main verb is mean. Therefore option A is apt.
Option B) means this word- The structure of the sentence after using option B would be “What means this word” which is a grammatically incorrect structure. Hence this option is inappropriate.
Option C) does mean this word- Auxiliary verbs or helping verbs are always placed before the main verb. The placement of the main verb “mean” before “this word” makes the structure of this option incorrect, hence option C is inappropriate.
Option D) is meaning this word- The subject of the sentence is singular. A singular subject takes a singular verb and the simple present tense. The given option is incorrect as it omits the article “the” before the main verb. And also as the given sentence suggests the use of simple present tense (don’t know, look) and not continuous tense, this option is incorrect.

Therefore the correct answer is option ‘A’.

Note: Some general rules while working with verbs are:
- Unless the subject's intended sense is singular, a subject formed up of nouns connected by and takes a plural subject.
- When two or more subjects are joined by and, employ a plural verb as a general rule.
- Remember that the verb agrees with the subject, not the noun or pronoun in the phrase following the subject of the sentence when a phrase appears between the subject and the verb.