Question

Fill in the blank with a suitable verb form:
The park gates __________ (lock) at 6:30 p.m. every evening.
 a. locks
b. are locked
c. locked
d. were locked

Answer 1

Hint: The student should read the sentence carefully to understand when the event is supposed to be taking place. Then the options should be carefully distinguished to find out whether they are correct or not.

Complete answer:
A verb is a content word that denotes an action, occurrence, or state of existence. Verb is the word class that serves as the predicate of a sentence.
Let us thus analyze the options given to us in this question -
Option (a.), 'locks', refers to ‘simple present tense’.Therefore, option (a.) is incorrect as ‘locks’ is the verb form used for singular nouns. However, here the noun ‘park gates’ is plural.
Option (b.), ‘are locked', refers to ‘simple present tense’.Therefore, option (b.) is correct as ‘are locked’ is used for a plural noun and is also in the present tense.
Option (c.), ‘locked', refers to ‘simple past tense’.Therefore, option (c.) is incorrect as the answer is supposed to be in the present tense as the sentence states a general rule/fact.
Option (d.), ‘were locked', refers to ‘past tense’.Therefore, option (d.) is incorrect as the answer is supposed to be in the present tense as the sentence states a general rule/fact.

Note:
 In this question, it will be helpful for the student to recall the concept of tense. Tense is a grammatical category of verbs used to express distinctions of time. There are three tenses - past, present, and future.