Question

Fill in the blank-
 I wish you_____ louder as I can't hear what you say.
A) Were speaking
B) Spoke
C) Would speak
D) Speak

Answer 1

Hint:The past tense is a grammatical tense that has the purpose of putting an event or circumstance in the past. It thus provides a grammatical way of suggesting that the occurrence alluded to took place in the past in languages that have a past tense.

Complete answer:
To speak about wishes for the present, we use past tense forms. Option (B) spoken is therefore the grammatically correct alternative.

Option A ‘were speaking’ is indicating the continuous tense which is incorrect.
'would' is the type of will in the past tense. It is used because it is a tense of the past- to speak of the past. Hypotheses to learn about (when we imagine something). Hence option C ‘Would speak’ is also not correct.

‘Speak’ the verb form is indicating the present tense but the structure of this type of (Imaginative) conditional sentence contains past form of the verb hence option D is also not correct

Additional information-
Tense is a category in grammar that expresses time reference. Tenses, particularly in their conjugation patterns, are typically manifested by the use of particular forms of verbs. Past, current , and future are the major tenses used in many languages.

The simple past tense, sometimes called the preterit, is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now. The simple past is the basic form of past tense in English. The time of the action can be in the recent past or the distant past and action duration is not important.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘B’.

Note: Knowledge of verb tenses does improve one’s reading skills, and reading will improve one’s tense skills and other grammar skills. The more you read, the more you learn on a number of levels. Whether it’s verb tenses, other cultures, other values, lower or higher concern grammar skills—there’re always many advantages to reading.