Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
I think you'd better _____ by the time they return.

• A. having gone
• B. be gone
• C. to have gone
• D. gone

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

be gone

In the sentence, "by the time" indicates that the person is talking about the time in the future when "they return". The context of the statement is that the listener should not be present by the time others arrive, thus, the action of the listener going away should be completed before some other event(the event of them coming back) in the future. Thus, in this case, we are talking about the present perfect tense.

Option A - It is incorrect. Present perfect tense does not use an auxiliary verb ending in "-ing" since the tense represents an action that is completed.

Option B - It is correct. Here "be gone" represents the intended meaning of the sentence and the auxiliary verb "be" before the past participle "gone" is consistent with the rules of usage.

Option C - It is incorrect. "to have gone" is grammatically inconsistent and also meaningless.

Option D - It is incorrect. "gone" always uses an auxiliary verb before it, which is not present in this option.