Question

Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate word.
How many sisters _____?
A) Do you have
B) You have
C) Are you have
D) Do you has

Answer 1

Hint: To solve this question, we must have knowledge about the correct use of verbs with the subject. For e.g. ‘have’ is a verb that is used with I, you, we and they. The verb ‘has’ is used with he, she and it. For all the verbs that are used in English grammar, there are certain forms to be used. ‘I, we’ are first-person, ‘you’ is second person and ‘he, she, it, they,’ are the third person.

Complete answer:
In the given sentence, we see that it begins with the word ‘how’, which means that it is a question. Since it is a question a verb has to be used before the pronoun ‘you’. For e.g. are you, can you, will you, do you, have you, etc.

Now let us look into the given options:
Option (A) Do you have – This option is correct, as it uses the correct verbs, ‘do’ and ‘have’ before and after ‘you’ respectively. The correct question hence is, How many sisters do you have? Thus, this option is correct.
Option (B) You have – This option is incorrect as ‘you have’ are correct but incomplete words. We also need to add the verb ‘do’ before ‘you’ to form a correct sentence. Therefore, this option is incorrect.
Option (C) Are you have – Here the verb used is ‘are’ which can be used correctly. But the verb ‘have’, following ‘you’ is not correct with respect to ‘are’. The correct verb should be ‘having’. The correct sentence thus formed would be ‘How many sisters are you having?’ This can be another way of asking the same question or may have a slightly different meaning. Thus, this option is incorrect.
Option (D) Do you has – The verb ‘do’ is correct, but the verb ‘has’ is incorrect. ‘Has’ is used with he, she and it. Have is used with I, you, and plural nouns. Hence, this option is also incorrect.

Thus, the correct answer is Option (A) i.e, How many sisters do you have?

Note:
- Basically, verbs are words that express some action. Like to do, to be, to go, to swim etc.
- The verb am, are, is are the conjugated forms of the verb to be.
- Verbs like be, do, have are called auxiliary verbs because they accompany the main verb in the perfect tense. For e.g. I am going. (‘as’ is a helping verb and ‘going’ is the main verb). I have gone. (‘have’ is a helping verb and ‘gone’ is the main verb).