Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
"If I ____ the way to the house, we wouldn't be so late." He replied.

• A. knew
• B. know
• C. would know
• D. had know

Answer 1

The correct option is A knew

The given sentence is in the form of the second conditional. The structure of the second conditional is:

If + simple past, ....would + verb

From the above structure we can say that the answer must be a verb in the simple past tense.

Option A is correct. 'knew' is in the simple past tense. It says that if the subject knew the way to the house, they wouldn't be so late. Thus, it complies with the structure of the second conditional.

Option B is incorrect. 'know' is in the present tense. Thus, it does not comply with the structure of the second conditional.

Option C is incorrect. 'would know' is in the past tense but, the use of 'would' here indicates that it talks about the future in the past. In other words, it talks about something that has not happened at a time in the past. The answer we require must be in simple past tense and so, we cannot use 'would know'

Option D is incorrect. 'had know' is a grammatically incorrect phrase. The use of 'had' indicates past perfect tense and so it has to be accompanied by a verb in its participle for. 'know' is not a participle and so the phrase is grammatically incorrect.