Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word:
Anna has had a bad cold _______ the last few days.

• A. for
• B. after
• C. since
• D. at

Answer 1

Answer: (A)

for

Answer : A

Explanation:

Prepositions are words that indicate relationships the other words in the sentence, and quite often they tell us about then "when" and "where" aspects.

And though most of the prepositions have more than one meaning, here we will only consider those that are in regards to time (the "when" aspects), because here in the sentence we have a time frame mentioned.

Let's look at what the various alternatives mean, in relation to time:

--for: As a preposition of time "for" is used to refer to an amount of time, be it either for past or present or future. So the construction of the sentence is like, for + a period of time.

--after: As a preposition of time, "after" is used to refer something that happened in the time following a particular event / time period.

--since: As a preposition of time "since" is used to refer to a point in time. So the construction of the sentence is like, since + a specific point in time.

--at: As a preposition of time, "at" is used to express the time when an event takes place.

The sentence here, talks about an amount of time, i.e. "last few days".

Thus grammatically appropriate alternative here is "for".

It is not a particular point in time, therefore we cannot use "since".

It is also NOT a specific time and thus we cannot us "at".

Also, the sentence is in Present Perfect Progressive Tense, which implies that during those last few days and even in the present time she has cold. Thus "after" is not a suitable preposition here.

Therefore the correct complete sentence is:

Anna has had a bad cold FOR the last few days.