Question

Fill in the blank with the correct form of the verb given in the bracket.
I __________ English for ten years. (teach)
A) Had been teaching
B) Was teaching
C) Am teaching
D) Have been teaching

Answer 1

Hint: In the given sentence the person is speaking about his/her years of experience as an English teacher. The way the rest of the sentence is constructed, we can understand that the person is still teaching. Hence, we must use the present perfect continuous tense to fill in the blanks.

Complete answer:
 To solve the given question we need to fill in the blank with the most suitable tense. In the given sentence, the action of teaching started in the past and has continued until the present moment. Present perfect continuous tense is used to describe an action that started in the past and has continued up to the present moment. The syntax for this tense is as follows: has/have + been + present participle.
Now, let us take a look at the given options and find the most suitable option.
Option ‘A’, had been teaching, is in a past perfect continuous tense and hence, incorrect.
Option ‘B’, was teaching, is in the past tense and hence, incorrect.
Option ‘C’, am teaching is in the present continuous tense and hence incorrect.
Therefore, from the above options, we can see that option ‘D’, ‘have been teaching’, is the correct answer as it follows the syntax well and is in the present perfect continuous tense.

Note:
For the usage of present continuous and present perfect continuous tense, remember that the former is used for an action that is happening currently, while the latter is used for something that started in the past and continues till the present moment.