Question

Fill in the blanks using correct tense forms :
Joe's cat _____ into the river yesterday.

• A. fell
• B. was falling
• C. have fallen
• D. is falling

Answer 1

The correct option is A fell

The word, 'yesterday' in the sentence indicates that the verb is in the past tense. The simple past tense talks about something that happened before. The past continuous tense talks about something that was happening before, but for a period of time. As the word, 'yesterday' talks about a specific time and not a period of time, the verb is in simple past tense and not past continuous tense.

Option A is correct as the verb 'fell' is the simple past tense form of the verb, 'fall.'

Option B is incorrect as the verb, 'was falling' is in past continuous tense.

Option C is incorrect as the verb, 'have fallen' is in present perfect tense. As the noun, 'Joe's cat' is in the third person and singular, the correct form of the verb in present perfect tense form is 'has fallen' and not 'have fallen'. Hence, this option is grammatically incorrect.

Option D is incorrect as the verb, 'is falling' is in present continuous tense.