Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
After Peter _ _ _ _ _ _ his breakfast, he went to work.
a. finishing
b. was finishing
c. had finished
d. has finished

Answer 1

Hint: Verbs come in three tenses, past, present, and future. The past is used to describe things that have already taken place. The present tense is used to describe things that are happening right now. The future tense describes things that have yet to happen.

Complete step-by-step answer:

One has to answer this question and choose the most appropriate word by identifying the correct tense of the verb from the given options and fill in the blank space. So, the word went denotes that the tense of the sentence is the past tense. Also, as Peter went to work clearly mentions that he already completed his last action. The option [a] finishing denotes that the action is not complete. Also, it is not accompanied by an auxiliary verb. Auxiliary means supporting. Therefore, option [a] is wrong.
The option [b] was finishing indicates the past tense but the action is still incomplete. Therefore, using the option [b] will also make our sentence grammatically wrong.
The option [c] had finished also indicates the past tense and also denotes that the activity has been completed. Thus, option the [c] is the correct option and are the most appropriate words to fill in the sentence.
So, the sentence will be, “After Peter had finished his breakfast, he went to work.
The option [d] has finished, is wrong because the activity is completed but the word “has” indicates that the action is in the present tense. Hence, using it will form an incorrect sentence.

Note: The tenses can be a bit confusing at times. Sometimes we write the way we speak and in our everyday speech, it’s easy to slip by the wrong tense. Do not get confused in a hurry. Identify each and every tense properly and then answer the question.