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In English / Middle School | 2014-05-09

What is the tense of the underlined verb in the sentence?

"We had just begun to practice the skit when the fire alarm rang."

A. past
B. future perfect
C. present perfect
D. past perfect

(Note: "had" and "begun" are underlined.)

Asked by mjchey

Answer (2)

D. past perfect
The tense of the underlined verb in the sentence:
We had just begun to practice the skit when the fire alarm rang is past perfect. Notice the conditioning word “when” which dictates the sentence to be in the past perfect state in its action verb. Hence, “had” is added next to the past participle of the sentence. For example, the boy had played when suddenly his mom came.

Answered by taskmasters | 2024-06-10

The underlined verbs "had" and "begun" are in the past perfect tense. This tense shows that the action of starting to practice the skit occurred before another past action (the fire alarm rang). Therefore, the correct answer is D: past perfect.
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Answered by taskmasters | 2024-10-01

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