Question

Fill in the blank with the most suitable auxiliary verb:
They _____________________ a house in Shimla.
a) Was
b) Were
c) Have
d) Is

Answer 1

Hint: The sentence talks about ‘they’ owning or having possession over a house that is situated in Shimla. So choose the auxiliary verb that indicates possession of something.

Complete answer:
 An auxiliary verb is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it appears, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc.
In the above-given sentence, the speaker is telling that ‘they’ own or possess a house in Shimla, i.e. they have a house in Shimla.
Now, let us look into the options and understands how they are used in a sentence. So, let us look into the options –
Option (a) – was: ‘was’ is the past tense form of the auxiliary verb is & be and is used for singular objects. It is used with – I, he, she, etc.
Option (b) – were: ‘were’ is the past tense of ‘are’ and is used for plural objects unlike was. It is used with – you, we, and they, etc.
Option (c) – have: ‘have’ is used to show that someone owns or possesses something, i.e. a person has that thing in his/ her possession.
Option (d) – is: ‘is’ is used to indicate the third person state in the present tense and when the subject is in a singular form.
Hence, as per the above explanation, we can see that the correct solution would be option (c), i.e. have. This makes the complete sentence as – ‘They have a house in Shimla’.

Note:
 Was and were are the past tense of the auxiliary verb ‘be’ and ‘are’ and are used with singular and plural noun respectively.