Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
Sarah's English is getting better. She _______ a lot of English since she ______ here.

• A. learnt / has come
• B. has learnt / has come
• C. has learnt / came
• D. learnt / came

Answer 1

The correct option is C has learnt / came

Answer : C

Important thing to determine the sequence of tenses in a sentence is to know that it is arranged in the order is Past --> Present --> Future, just as it happens in real life. Therefore, it is important to determine the occurrence of each action relative to each other.

Reading the sentence in the question, we understand that first Sarah went to that place ("here") at some point and there she learnt a lot of English, in that sequence.

Now there are some grammar rules that we need to know:

• A past tense in the principal clause is always followed by a past tense in the subordinate clause.
• If the tense used with the principal clause is in the present or future tense, the tense of the subordinate clause can be in any tense based on what needs to be conveyed.

Therefore, in the question the first blank CANNOT be in the past tense ("learnt"), thus we will use Present Tense ("has learnt") there and Past Tense ("came") in the second blank as that happened first.

Thus, the correct complete sentence is:

She HAS LEARNT a lot of English since she CAME here.