Question

Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate words.
It is the best holiday I ____ ever _____.

a)have / had
b)am / having
c)had / had
d)was / having

Answer 1

Hint: The tense required is Present Perfect Tense. Present Perfect tense has a particular construction that must be followed.

Complete answer:

The given sentence contains the word ‘ever’. Usually, when a sentence contains the words ‘never’, ‘ever’, ‘already’, or ‘yet’, the tense required is usually present perfect tense.
Now, let’s have a look at the given options:

a)have / had - If this is used to fill the blanks, the sentence would be grammatically correct. It is in the present perfect tense. So, this is the correct option.
b)am / having - This would be the wrong tense, because the given sentence contains the word ‘ever’. ‘Am having’ would be the present continuous tense. It would be grammatically incorrect to use this tense with the word ‘ever’ in the same sentence. So, this is an incorrect option.
c)had / had - This would be the wrong tense, because it is the wrong tense. It would be grammatically incorrect to use this tense. So, this is an incorrect option.
d)was / having - This would also be the wrong tense, it would be the past continuous tense. It would be grammatically incorrect to use this tense. So, this is an incorrect option.

So, we arrive at the conclusion that the complete sentence would be ‘It is the best holiday I have ever had’.

Note: Use the elimination method to find the required tense. Go through the sentence and try to find words that point to a specific tense.