Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
She wants us to meet at the cafeteria, but I'd rather we ___________ here.
A) Meet
B) Will meet
C) Met
D) Had met

Answer 1

Hint: Tenses are used to express time reference. Tenses are typically expressed through the use of specific verb forms, particularly in their conjugation patterns. There are basically three main tenses and are Past tense, present tense and future tense.

Complete answer:
The first part of the sentence is in the present tense ‘She wants us to meet at the cafeteria’ but the second part of the sentence is in the past tense ‘but I'd rather we ___________ here’. So, to fill the blank we have to use the past tense of the verb to make the sentence grammatically correct.

Let us analyze the given options:
Option A) Meet – Meet is the present tense of the verb and the use of meet in the blank will make the sentence grammatically incorrect because the second part of the sentence requires the past tense and meet is not the past tense. Therefore, this is an incorrect answer.

Option B) Will meet – Will meet again is in the present tense and the use of this option in the blank will make the sentence grammatically incorrect. Therefore, this is an incorrect answer.

Option C) Met - In the above sentence, the first part of the sentence is in simple present tense and the second part of the sentence is in the simple past tense. To make the sentence grammatically correct the verb ‘meet’ should be in the third form and the third form of the verb ‘meet’ is met. Therefore, this is the correct answer and make the sentence grammatically correct.

Option D) Had met – Had met is the past perfect tense and the use of this option in the blank will make
the sentence incorrect; the sentence will become “She wants us to meet at the cafeteria, but I'd rather we had met here” again, the sentence is grammatically incorrect because the second clause is in simple past tense so, the third form of meet is met not ‘had met’. Therefore, this is an incorrect answer.

Therefore the correct answer is option ‘C’ i.e, She wants us to meet at the cafeteria, but I'd rather we met here.

Note:
- The simple past tense indicates an activity that has already occurred.
For example, I went to the shopping mall.
- The formula of simple past tense i.e., S+ verb (3rd form) + object (optional). Therefore, Option C is the most appropriate option as compared to other options because other options are not in the past tense.