Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
Everyone will ___________ lunch by 2:30.
A) Has
B) Eat for
C) Have had
D) Had have

Answer 1

Hint: Tenses are used to express time references. Verb tenses basically come in three tenses. Past tense, present tense and future tense. For example: Past tense – I went to work; Present tense – He enjoys playing football; Future tense – We shall move to another place.

Complete answer:
For answering this question, the sentence has ‘will’ which means that we need our answer in the future perfect tense used for an action that will be completed before some other point in the future. For example: “You will have worked ten hours by Saturday.”. So, to give the correct fit in the blank we will be using future perfect tense.

Option A) Has – is an incorrect answer because ‘has’ is the perfect tense. But this does not include or have the main verb, so, the use of ‘has’ in the blank will make it grammatically incorrect. Thus, this is an incorrect choice.

Option B) Eat for – is an incorrect answer because ‘eat for’ refers to a time period for which everyone will have food. The use of ‘eat for’ in the blank will change the meaning of the sentence. Thus, this is an incorrect choice.

Option C) Have had – is the correct answer because ‘have had’ is in the future perfect tense and ‘will’ in the sentence is the auxiliary verb. Thus, this option indicates that everyone will be finished having lunch by 2:30. Thus, this option is the correct fit in the blank and it is grammatically correct. Thus, this is the correct choice. Everyone will have had lunch by 2:30. (Option C)

Option D) Had have – is an incorrect answer because the main verb 'have' in this option is not in its past participle form, and in the perfect form of a tense, the main verb should be in its past participle form. Thus, this option is grammatically incorrect. Therefore, this is an incorrect choice.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘C’.

Note: In the given sentence 'will' indicates the future tense. The word 'by' indicates that everyone will be done having lunch by 2:30. Thus, the answer must be in future perfect tense.
The rule of future perfect tense is: will have + past participle. So, option C is grammatically correct, rest options does not lie in this rule.