Question

Fill in the blank.
One of the students _____absent yesterday.
A) Were
B) Was
C) Are
D) Have

Answer 1

Hint:First we must know the uses of all given verbs and modal verbs. Choose the option which will be grammatically correct for the given sentence and also we must see that the selected option will make the sentence meaningful.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Auxiliary verb –A helping verb is a verb that comes before the main verb.
Now let’s examine and understand the given options above.
Were: this is a helping verb but in this sentence the subject is singular and we use this verb mostly with plural and with conditional sentences that’s why this is an inappropriate answer for the given question.
Are: this is also a helping verb which we use in present tense. Given sentence is related to the past tense so it is also an inappropriate answer for the given question.
Have: we use this verb in present tense and with plural. We use have in English for numbers as well but the given sentence is totally different so according to that it is an inappropriate answer for the given question.
Was: this is the correct answer for the given question because here the subject is ‘one of the students ’. Here we are talking about one person so the subject is singular and in this sentence we are talking about yesterday so according to past tense ‘was’ is an appropriate answer. Hence, the appropriate answer will be option [B]

Note:A good knowledge on parts of speech is required to answer these types of questions. Students should learn parts of speech to understand all the grammar rules properly because after learning these things they can easily understand all the grammar rules.