Grammar Past Tense

Fill in the blank: "By the time she arrived at the party, everyone ___."

• left

• leaves

• had left

• leaving

Answer explanation

"By the time she arrived at the party, everyone ___."

Ans: had left

Event 1: She arrived at the party

Event 2: Everyone left

Event 1 happened after Event 2, and Event 1 uses the past tense, so Event 2 has to use the past perfect tense.

Fill in the blank: "The children ___ playing in the park when it started raining."

• was

• is

• were

• are

Answer explanation

"The children ___ playing in the park when it started raining."

Ans: were

Event 1: The children were playing in the park

Event 2: It started raining

Since Event 1 happened before Event 2 started, and Event 1 continued to happen, Event 1 uses the past continuous tense.

Fill in the blank: "Tom ___ his homework when the doorbell rang."

• doing

• did

• does

• was doing

Answer explanation

"Tom ___ his homework when the doorbell rang."

Ans: was doing

Event 1: Tom was doing his homework.

Event 2: The doorbell rang

Both events happened at the same time and "rang" is in the past tense, so we have to use the past continuous.

Fill in the blank: "After the storm, the streets ___ with debris."

• filled

• fill

• fills

• filling

Answer explanation

"After the storm, the streets ___ with debris."

Ans: filled

The storm happened first, then the streets filling with debris happened, so we use the past tense here.

Fill in the blank: "After Anna ___ her chores, she watched a movie."

• had finished

• finishes

• finished

• finishing

Answer explanation

"After Anna ___ her chores, she watched a movie."

Ans: had finished

Event 1: Anna finished her chores

Event 2: she watched a movie

Event 1 happened before event 2, so we have to use the past perfect tense.

Fill in the blank: "After James ___ his breakfast, he went to school."

• had had

• had

• has

• have

Answer explanation

"After James ___ his breakfast, he went to school."

"went" is in the past tense

James ate his breakfast, then he went to school.

So the blank has to be a verb that is used for before the past tense, and the correct answer is "had had", which is in the past perfect tense.

Vincent _____ still _____ online games when his parents came back from dinner.

• was .... playing

• is .... playing

• has .... played

• was ....played

This time yesterday, Angelina ____ against the clock to finish her assignment on time.

• raced

• is racing

• was racing

• were racing

While Darren _____ after the bus, the tripped and hit his head against the kerb.

• ran

• is running

• was running

• were running

The painter _____ the ceiling when the ladder toppled and he lost his balance.

• painted

• has painted

• was painting

• were painting