Question

Fill in the blank with the correct form of verb given in the bracket:
When I reached the temple, a group of people ______ devotional song (recite).
A) Recited
B) Were reciting
C) Was reciting
D) Had been reciting

Answer 1

Hint:Verbs are action or doing words or a verb is a part of a sentence that tells what the subject performs. For example run, walk, eat, play etc. Verbs have three forms: First form of the verb, Second form of the verb and Third form of the verb. For example: write, wrote and written.

Complete answer:
Here in this verb tenses plays an important role. So, first we have to understand what verb tenses are.
Verbs comes in three tenses: past, present, future.
>The past is used to describe things that have already happened (For example: Earlier in the day, yesterday, last week, three years ago).
>The present tense is used to describe things that are happening right now, or things that are continuous. (For example: Bill writes the letter).
>The future tense describes things that have yet to happen (For example: later, tomorrow, next week, next year, three years from now).

Now let us look into the given options
Option A) Recited: - is an incorrect answer because recited is in the simple past tense and we need our answer in the past continuous tense. So, the sentence ‘When I reached the temple, a group of people recited devotional songs’ is an incorrect answer.
Option B) Were reciting – is an incorrect answer because ‘were’ is plural and since we refer to a group of people and not groups. So, the sentence ‘When I reached the temple, a group of people were reciting devotional songs’ is an incorrect answer.
Option C) Was reciting – is the correct answer because 'a group' here represents a single entity. So, the most appropriate form of the verb is ‘was reciting’. So, ‘When I reached the temple, a group of people was reciting devotional songs’ is the correct answer.
Option D) Had been reciting – is an incorrect answer because the tense used is in the past perfect continuous form. So, ‘When I reached the temple, a group of people had been reciting devotional songs’ is an incorrect answer.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘C’.

Note: The best way to memorize verb tenses in the following formula: Personal pronoun + tense form (I write, he writes, we write, you write, etc.) Memorizing tense forms in such constructions will also help you to memorize basic subject-verb agreement in person and number.