Question

Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verbs:

How fast ______ (you/drive) when the accident ______ (happen)?

a) you were driving; has happened
b)have you driven; happened
c) were you driving; happened
d) did you drive; has happened

Answer 1

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

Complete answer:
Let us analyze the options given to us in this question:
Option (a.), 'you were driving; has happened', is incorrect as ‘has happened’ is the present perfect participle which refers to the fact that the accident has happened very recently, which is incorrect since we do not know when the accident happened.

Option (b.), ‘have you driven; happened', refers to the past perfect participle of both ‘drive’ and ‘happen’.
Therefore, option (b.) is incorrect as ‘have you driven’ should be ‘were you driving’ since the speed was continuous during the accident.

Option (c.), ‘were you driving; happened', is correct since ‘were’ is the past tense form of the verb ‘are’. Since the incident happened in the past, it is correct for the speaker to ask what speed was he driving at.

Option (d.), ‘did you drive; has happened', is incorrect as ‘did’ you drive refers to the fact that he drove only for a certain time. It doesn’t signify the speed during the accident.

Note: In such a question, note that it helps to remember what each type of tense of a verb signifies. For example, the past perfect tense is a perfective tense used to express action completed in the past.