Question

Fill in the blank using the appropriate option:-
'You look tired.' 'Yes, I ____________ last night.'
A. Can't sleep
B. Can sleep
C. Couldn't sleep
D. Could sleep

Answer 1

Hint:In the given question, the speaker is telling someone that they look tired and the listener agrees and gives a reason for the past, evident from the words “last night” . The verbs can and can’t describe ability and inability respectively. And the verbs could and couldn’t are the past tense of can and can’t. We will look for an appropriate option that fits the blank.

Complete answer:
Let us proceed to figure out the correct answer with the help of the above stated hint.
Can't sleep:- Can’t describes inability in doing something in the present. By implying this option, the sentence becomes 'You look tired.' 'Yes, I can’t sleep last night.' This is incorrect as the use of present tense in this sentence is inappropriate. Therefore, this is not the correct option.
Can sleep:- Can describes ability in doing something in the present. By implying this option, the sentence becomes 'You look tired.' 'Yes, I can sleep last night.' This is incorrect as the use of present tense in this sentence is inappropriate. Therefore, this is not the correct option.
Couldn't sleep:- Couldn’t describes inability in doing something in the past. By implying this option, the sentence becomes 'You look tired.' 'Yes, I couldn’t sleep last night.' This is correct as the use of past tense in this sentence is appropriate. Therefore, this is the correct option.
Could sleep:- Could describes ability in doing something in the past. By implying this option, the sentence becomes 'You look tired.' 'Yes, I could sleep last night.' This is incorrect as the use of could in this sentence is inappropriate. Therefore, this is not the correct option.

Hence, the correct answer is option C.

Note:We need to take care of two things here: first, that we need to use a verb that describes inability to sleep, second, the use of the verb should be in the past. Therefore, ‘couldn’t’ matched our requirements.