Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
My friends ___________ to play tennis.
a. like
b. wants
c. can
d. likes

Answer 1

Hint: There is a choice between singular and plural verbs in the given question. Singular verbs are used with plural nouns and plural verbs are used with singular nouns.

Complete answer:
Let us analyse every given option.
- Option a: “Like” means to prefer or admire something or someone. For example, “I like to sketch.” This word “like” makes sense when we put it in the blank. “My friends like to play tennis.” So this option is correct.
- Option b: “Wants” means to have intention or eagerness to do something. This word can be put in the blank, but the meaning of the sentence will change. Also, the verb should be plural. “Want” would be correct. “My friends want to play tennis”. This looks like some extra story is there too, which is not mentioned in the question. So this is not the correct option.
- Option c: “Can” means to be able to do something. For example, “I can play both the guitar and the drums.” This option is a total misfit in the blank. So it’s not a correct option at all.
- Option d: “Likes” is the singular form of the verb “like”. If the given sentence was “My friend ____ to play tennis”, then it would be a possible correct answer. But according to the sentence, where “friends” is a plural word, “likes” is incorrect.

> Thus, the correct sentence will be My friends like to play tennis. Option (a) is correct.

Note: If there is more than one option which seems to be a good fit, try to differentiate between the meaning of the words given in the options and put the word which matches best with the sentence. Here, “want” could have been a correct option too, but the grammar and lack of context makes it inappropriate.