Question

Fill in the blanks with an appropriate form of the verb given in the bracket:
The rain started two hours ago. It’s still raining now. It ______ (rain) for two hours
a. Has rained
b. Have been raining
c. Has been raining
d. Rained

Answer 1

Hint: To answer the question, one must understand proper usage of forms of verbs. It is important to know which one is used in what context.

Complete answer:
Verbs are the part of speech that shows an action being taken place. There are various forms of verbs depending on the subject and the tense. Walk, talk, be, swim are some verbs. Example, “I have been running for the past thirty minutes”.
In the given sentence, since it talks about something that started some time ago and has been going since then. Hence, the correct form of the verb should be present to begin with, and then it should be the present perfect continuous form of the verb. That is the correct form of the verb to be used here.
Option a, “has rained”, is in present perfect tense, which is incorrect in the given context. It is an incorrect option. Option b, “have been raining” is the wrong form, since there is no subject verb agreement to be used in context, as discussed above, hence, option b is incorrect. Option c, “has been raining”, is in the present perfect continuous form, hence it is the correct choice. Option d, “rained”, is in the past tense, hence it is incorrect as well. Option c is the correct choice.

Note: Here, one must know the proper usage of forms of verbs in order to not confuse the options. If one is not aware, one might end up choosing the wrong option.