Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
I ________ the test when the bell rang.
a. already have finished
b. have already finished
c. had already finish
d. had already finished.

Answer 1

Hint: Past perfect tense indicates past to past. It uses the formula of ‘had’ + ‘past form of the verb’. For example, She had gone to the library before going to the market.

Complete answer:
From the hint given to us, we understand the meaning of past perfect tense. We infer that the correct answer must be in the past perfect tense. Let us analyse the given options to find the correct answer.
a. “Already have finished” is ungrammatical as the adverb is placed before the auxiliary verb and the main verb. Hence, we can say that option ‘a’ is not the correct answer.
b. “Have already finished” indicates present perfect tense. Present perfect tense conveys an activity from the past that has present consequences. For example, I have already finished my work. We observe that it does not correctly fit the context of the given sentence. Hence, we can say that option ‘b’ is not the correct answer.
c. “Had already finish” is ungrammatical as it uses the present tense form of the verb, finish with the auxiliary verb, had. Hence, we can say that option ‘c’ is not the correct answer.
d. “Had already finished” indicates past perfect tense. We observe that it correctly fits the context of the given sentence. Hence, we can say that option ‘d’ is the correct answer.
Thus, we can conclude that the correct answer is option ‘d’ - “had already finished”.

Note: Such questions require you to have a good knowledge of the various tenses. It also requires you to correctly analyse the tense of the given sentence and use the appropriate verb form.