Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
A: Did they play that song on the radio?
B: Well, I heard it _____ on the radio this morning.
(a)play
(b)playing
(c)played
(d)to be played

Answer 1

Hint: Look for pointers suggesting which tense to use. The actions are completed in the given sentence. This is indicative of a certain tense.

Complete answer:The sentence is very clear. The phrase ‘this morning’ is
used in the sentence. This means that the action happened some time ago. So, to convey
that an action happened some time ago, we need to use Simple Past Tense.
The simple past tense, sometimes called the preterite, is used to talk about a completed
action in a time before now. The simple past is the basic form of past tense in English. The
time of the action can be in the recent past or the distant past and action duration is not
important.
For regular verbs, in order to convert them, add -ed to the root form of the verb (or just -d if
the root form already ends in an e).
For irregular verbs, things get more complicated. The simple past tense of some irregular
verbs look exactly like the root form.
For other irregular verbs, including the verb to be, the simple past forms are more erratic.
The past tense verb ‘heard’ exists in the sentence. So, we need a basic form of the required verb.
Now, we know what we are looking for. Let’s look at the given options:
(a)play - The word ‘play’ is the basic form of the root verb. This fits perfectly into the given sentence. This is the required answer. So, this is the correct option.
(b)playing - The word ‘playing’ is the continuous form of the given verb. This does not fit into the context of the given sentence. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
(c)played - The word ‘played’ is the past tense form of the given verb. This does not fit into the context of the given sentence. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
(d)to be played - This phrase is the infinitive form. This does not fit into the context of the given sentence. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.

Note:Choose the most appropriate option given the context of the sentence. Make sure all the forms of verbs are aligning with each other and work with each other perfectly.