Directions: Select the most appropriate option to fill in the blank.Q....
Explanation:
The correct answer is option B) "had been waiting."
In this sentence, the phrase "for forty minutes" indicates a past duration of time, and it is clear that the waiting happened before the speaker's name was announced. This suggests that the waiting started in the past and continued up until a specific point in the past.
To express this idea, we use the past perfect continuous tense, which is formed with the auxiliary verb "had been" followed by the present participle form of the main verb (in this case, "waiting").
Here's the breakdown of the sentence:
- "I" - This refers to the speaker, who is the subject of the sentence.
- "had been waiting" - This is the verb phrase that describes the action of waiting. The past perfect continuous tense is used to indicate that the waiting started in the past and continued until a specific point in the past.
- "for forty minutes" - This prepositional phrase indicates the duration of time that the speaker had been waiting.
Example:
Let's consider an example to further illustrate the use of the past perfect continuous tense in this context:
- I had been waiting for forty minutes to see the doctor before my name was announced. During that time, I grew increasingly impatient and frustrated.
In this example, the speaker emphasizes the duration of the waiting by using the past perfect continuous tense. The waiting started in the past and continued up until the point when the speaker's name was announced. The use of this tense helps convey the speaker's experience and frustration during the waiting period.
Directions: Select the most appropriate option to fill in the blank.Q....
- The given sentence is in the past perfect continuous tense. The past perfect continuous tense shows that an action that started in the past continued up until another time in the past.
- The past perfect continuous tense is constructed using had been + the verb’s present participle (base + -ing).
- Let us explore the given options:
- 'Were waiting' is in the past continuous form.
- 'Had been waiting' is in the past perfect continuous form.
- 'Have been waiting' is in the present perfect continuous form.
- 'Am waiting' is in the present continuous form.
Hence, the correct answer is option 2.
Complete Sentence: I had been waiting for forty minutes to see the doctor before my name was announced.