Question

Fill in the blank with the most suitable option.
The car broke down, and we ________ have it towed to a service station.
a) Have to
b) Had to
c) should
d) ought

Answer 1

Hint: A verb is a content word that denotes an action, occurrence, or state of existence. The verb is the word class that serves as the predicate of a sentence.

Complete answer:
In the given question, we have to find out which of the options given to us is grammatically correct and portrays an obligation and necessity to have the car towed to the service station.
Let us thus analyze the options given to us in this question:
Option (a.), 'have to', refers to ‘Must; need to; to be required to. Indicates obligation.’
Therefore, option (a.) is incorrect as it is in the present tense and we require the option to be in the past tense as the first part of the sentence indicates that it occurred in the past.
Option (b.), ‘had to', refers to the past tense form of ‘have to’, which means ‘Must; need to; to be required to. Indicates obligation.’
Therefore, option (b.) is correct as it indicates that it was both necessary and an obligation to have the car towed.
Option (c.), ‘should', refers to ‘(auxiliary) Be obliged to; have an obligation to; ought to; indicates that the subject of the sentence has some obligation to execute the sentence predicate.’Therefore, option (c.) is incorrect as it does not indicate that the towing is necessary.
Option (d.), ‘ought', refers to ‘(auxiliary) Indicating duty or obligation.’Therefore, option (d.) is incorrect as ‘ought’ should be accompanied by ‘to’ or it becomes are grammatically incorrect.

Note:
 In this question, it will be helpful for the student to recall the concept of tense. Tense is a grammatical category of verbs used to express distinctions of time. There are three tenses- past, present, and future.