Question

She ______ tennis every day.
(Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.)
a. play
b. playing
c. plays
d. to play

Answer 1

Hint:Try to look for certain pointer words such as ‘everyday’. They will help you understand which option you are looking for as they help to narrow down the exact tense required. Then, go through the given options, and choose the most appropriate option accordingly.

Complete answer: We can identify the kind of verb needed when we look
at the subject of the sentence. In order to do that, we need to deconstruct the given
sentence-
The subject is ‘she’ which refers to the person who plays tennis in this case. This indicates that the subject is singular. This means that only verbs that are matched with singular subjects can go with the given subject. The verbs that we need to look for should match the singular subject.
For this particular sentence, since we need emphasis, we will use the simple present tense. This means that the verb ‘to play’ will be conjugated along with the required participle.

Now we know what we are looking for from the given answers. Let’s look at the given
options-
a. play - This is a singular verb. It is in the bare infinitive form. This does not fit into the given sentence at all. This is not in the required tense. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
b. playing - This is a singular verb. It is in the continuous form. This does not fit into the given sentence at all. This is not in the required tense. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
c. plays - This is a singular verb. It is in the simple present form. This fits into the given sentence perfectly. This is in the required tense. This is the required answer. So, this is the correct option.
d. to play - This is a singular verb. It is in the infinitive form. This does not fit into the given sentence at all. This is not in the required tense. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
Therefore, option c is correct.

Note: If the subject is singular, the verb used should also be singular and when the subject is plural, the verb must also be plural. When the subject of the sentence is composed of two or more nouns or pronouns connected by and, we use a plural verb.