Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate answer from the options given below:

The assailants while fleeing ___________ a large number of people.

• A. have slay
• B. have slain
• C. has slain
• D. has slay

Answer 1

The correct option is B have slain

The tense of a sentence denotes a time, whether it is the time now (present), time then (past) or the time to come (future). The verb of a sentence has most to do with the tense. In the given sentence, a verb form of the suitable tense is required, it speaks about "the assailants" who performed two simultaneous actions 'while fleeing' and 'slaying people', 'have slain' is the most suitable option, as sentence is in the present perfect tense, of the form have + past participle (slain). This tense refers to an action that began in the past and completed in the present, hence option B is correct. Since the form of the present perfect tense is have + past participle, and not have + infinitive (without to), option A is incorrect. 'Has' is used for the second person singular point of view, 'she has, he has, it has', and isn't used for the third person plural, the assailants are the third person point of view, as they are not a part of the conversation but are being spoken about, hence option C is incorrect. Similarly, option D is incorrect, also, 'slay' is not paired with 'has', 'slay' is used on its own, in the simple present tense, and 'has' is paired with the past participle of 'slay', 'slain'.