Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.

We live in the city. We wish we ______ in the country.

a) Have lived

b) Living

c) Lived

d) Live

Answer 1

Hint: We have to choose a form of the word which conveys the meaning that “something could have been done but it did not happen”. The tense used for such a word shall be in the past tense. The word here is “live”.

Complete answer:

Let us look at the given options and find out which is the correct answer.

Option a is wrong because when we use the word “have”, it implies that the action has been performed. For example, We have eaten. So it means that the act of eating has been performed. However, in the given sentence, the person is wishing that he lives in the country. So he actually has neither lived there nor is going to live there. It is just a wish.

Option b is wrong because “living” is a continuous tense which means that the action is happening or ongoing. However, as explained earlier, living in the country is a wish for the person and he actually does not live there.

Option c is the correct answer. I wish we lived in the country. Why a past tense is used in such cases is because the person wished for living in the city. It cannot happen in the future and it is not happening in the present.

Option d is wrong because “live” in the present tense cannot be used when the previous tense is also in the present tense. It is implied that since the person lives in the city, he cannot live in the country.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘c’.

Note:

It is easy to get confused between options c and d. In such cases use the word in the sentence to see which answer is more suitable. When there are two sentences, we have to take the reference of the sentence prior to the sentence for which we have to find the answer.