Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate option.


A: Oh, your coat's wet!
B: That's because ______.

a) The rainy weather
b) The rain’s been falling
c) It’s been raining
d) It might raining

Answer 1

Hint: 'That's' (that is) suggests that the given sentence is in the present tense.
The present tense is a verb tense that expresses actions or states at the time of speaking.
For example- She is speaking on the topic ‘Hanukkah’.

Complete answer:

The first sentence in the given question suggests that B’s coat is already wet, which indicates that it was raining since a point in the past and that
a) it was either raining till the current point, or
b) it still went on to rain.
Thus, the right option must show that the rain continued from the past to the present. Therefore, the right answer must be in the present perfect continuous tense.

Let us analyze the options given to us in this question:
Option (a.), 'the rainy weather' suggests a cause for which 'B's’ coat got wet. It also does not include any preposition like ‘of’ before 'the rainy weather' which would make 'the rainy weather' a cause for which ‘B’s’ coat got wet.
Therefore, option (a.) is incorrect as the right answer must be in the present perfect continuous tense.

Option (b.), 'the rain’s been falling' does have perfect tense, as it does not go like ‘the rain has been falling.’
Therefore, option (b.) is incorrect. The right answer must be in the present perfect continuous tense.

Option (c.), 'it's been raining' is a phrase in the present perfect continuous tense. Thus, it indicates that the rain has continued since a point in the past, to a point in the present, or is still continuing.
So, the correct answer is “Option c”.

Option (d.), ‘it might raining', is grammatically incorrect as 'might' is a modal and not an auxiliary verb, which is needed to make it grammatically correct.
Therefore, option (d.) is incorrect.

Note: In this question, do not confuse option (b.) to be correct, as it is not used very commonly or even used in informal grammar.