Question

"The letter ____ last week," Helen said.
Fill in the blank with the most appropriate option.
A) is sent
B) was sent
C) will be sent
D) sent

Answer 1

Hint: Tense is a grammatical concept that indicates the passage of time. The employment of distinct forms of verbs, especially in their conjugation patterns, is a common way of expressing tenses. Past, present, and future are the three major tenses found in most languages.

Complete answer:
The term 'last week' in the provided sentence shows that the text is in the past tense. In addition, there is no verb to express the action using the word 'letter.' As a result, the response must be a past tense verb.

Let us look at the given options:
A) is sent: This option is incorrect. 'Is sent' is a present tense verb. The tense is determined by the word 'is.' As a result, employing it will cause the sentence's tense to be incongruent.
B) was sent: This is the correct answer. The verb 'was sent' is in the past tense. As a result, it is in the right tense and satisfies all of the requirements.
C) will be sent: This option is incorrect. 'Will be sent' is a future tense verb, not a past tense verb. As a result, employing it will cause the sentence's tense to be incongruent.
D) sent: This option is incorrect. 'Sent' is an unfinished verb. It is merely a participle because it lacks an auxiliary. As a result, it can't be used because it's not a full verb.

Thus, the correct answer is Option B) was sent.

Note: The past tense is a grammatical tense that refers to an action or circumstance that occurred in the past. The English verbs sung, went, and washed are examples of past tense verbs. Most languages include a past tense, and some have many kinds to express how long ago an event occurred.