Question

I ______ a card to the club and in the afternoon I went there to play bridge.
had been giving (Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.)
A) were given
B) was given
C) have given
D) was giving

Answer 1

Hint: The past perfect, also known as the pluperfect, is a verb tense that is used to describe behaviour that occurred before some point in the past. The past perfect tense is for talking about something that happened before. It doesn’t matter if the subject is singular or plural; the formula doesn’t change.

Complete answer:
In order for the sentence ’I went there to play bridge’ an action is completed first and another action that should have been done in the past is called past perfect tense. So, you can identify the option of the event should be in past perfect form.

Let us look into the given options:
Option A: ‘had been giving’ is the action that continuously happens in the past. Thus the option is not suitable for the sentence as we require the answer in past perfect form. So, this is incorrect.
Option B: ‘were given’ is the event that was done in the past. The subject of the sentence is in the singular form. But, the verb ‘were’ is used for plural nouns. As a result, this option is not fit for the sentence.
Option C: ‘was given’ is the event that is done in the past and also used in singular nouns. The subject of the sentence is singular form ‘I’. As a result, this option is the best fit for the sentence.
Option D: ‘have given’ is the event that is done in the past but which is not appropriate to the second sentence that is in past perfect tense. The subject of the sentence is singular form ‘I’. As a result, this option is the best fit for the sentence.
Option E: ‘ was giving’ is the event that denotes past continuous tense and but the sentence is past perfect form. so we need two events to be done in the past. As a result, this option is the best fit for the sentence.

Thus the correct answer is option ‘C’.

Note: We note there are two actions completed in past form. But, we found the sentence in past perfect form means the action is done in the past just before the next event that was also done in the past. Here, the sentence I went there to play bridge is done first then only I was given a card to the club. We identify this sentence as in the form of the past perfect tense.