Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
Peter ____ his work 3 hours ago.
A. has finished
B. will finish
C. finished
D. finish

Answer 1

Hint: We use the simple past tense to indicate an action that began and ended in the past itself. Here, we can see the use of ‘3 hours ago’, which indicates that the action was performed in the past.

Complete answer:
As given in the hint, the simple past tense does not indicate the duration of action. It only indicates when an action took place.
Let’s look at the structure and usage of the simple past tense-
Structure- Subject + base form of the verb + ‘ed/d’ + object
Usage- We jumped on the bed last night. Here, we can understand that X and Y performed the action of jumping in the past.
In the given question: We can conclude that Z finished his work 3 hours ago. Here, we have used ‘finished’ to indicate that the action began and ended in the past itself.
Now, let’s examine the given options-
Option A. ‘has finished’ is an incorrect option because it is given in the present perfect tense.
Option B. ‘will finish’ is an incorrect option because it is given in future tense.
Option C. ‘finished’ is the correct option because it is given in the simple past tense.
Option D. ‘finish’ is an incorrect option because it is given in the base form or present tense.
The correct answer is Option ‘c’.

Note:
Keep in mind, the simple past tense is also known as ‘preterite’. It is considered to be the basic form of the past tense in English grammar.