ENGLISH QUIZ: Test your tenses!

Answer these questions and find out just how good you are with the use of tenses in English! Illustration: Uttam Ghosh

'She is waiting for us at the restaurant.'

'They spent the night at a roadside inn.'

'I have been trying to piece together this puzzle.'

The words italicised in the above sentences are verbs that denote the tenses of each. A tense is defined in grammar as a "category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place." In other words, tenses grammaticise time references.

Fill in the blanks for each sentence in the following pages with the appropriate verb tenses.

Answers are provided upon submission of results on each page and you can draw your own conclusions about your performance!

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate tense of the verb in brackets:
By the time John (arrive) ______, I (wait) ______ for more than two hours.
1) arrived, had been waiting
2) arrives, will be waiting
3) arrive, waiting

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate tense of the verb in brackets:
She (work) ______ for our organisation for more than a decade and (retire) ______ next year.
1) will work, retire
2) worked, retired
3) has been working, will retire

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate tense of the verb in brackets:
Kamal keeps (park) ______ her car carelessly and (inconvenience) ______ all the neighbours.
1) parked, inconvenienced
2) parking, inconveniencing
3) parked, inconvenience

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate tense of the verb in brackets:
They (say) ______ that they (complete) ______ the project a week from today.
1) said, will complete
2) are saying, completed
3) were saying, completing

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate tense of the verb in brackets:
He (try) ______ to cross the street when he (slip) ______ and (fall) ______.
1) will try, slip, falls
2)was trying, slipped, fell
3) tried, slipping, fallen

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate tense of the verb in brackets:
My mother is a compulsive shopper, so it's not surprising that she (buy) ______ four pairs of shoes yesterday.
1) will buy
2) bought
3) was buying

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate tense of the verb in brackets:
At the age of 28, Raj (leave) ______ the investment banking firm and became a full-time artist.
1) left
2) leaves
3) was leaving

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate tense of the verb in brackets:
Her brother (love) ______ to travel and (plan) ______ to visit Budapest next year.
1) loved, will plan
2) was loving, planned
3) loves, is planning

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate tense of the verb in brackets:
Diana (embarrass) ______ because she couldn't (dance) ______ too well.
1) will be embarrassed, dance
2) was embarrassed, dance
3) embarrassed, danced

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate tense of the verb in brackets:
Their attorney (accuse) ______ our client of fraud in court and (manage) ______ to (convince) ______ the jury of his guilt.
1) is accusing, managing, convinced
2) accused, managed, convince
3) accuses, managed, convinces

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate tense of the verb in brackets:
The children (be, usually) ______ given a week off from school after their examinations.
1) are usually
2) or
3) nor

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate tense of the verb in brackets:
Mrs Khanna (bring) ______ all of us up to speed on the neighbourhood gossip and (spend) ______ an hour (discuss) ______ various people's marital troubles.
1) brought, spent, discussing
2) brings, was spending, discussed
3) was bringing, will spend, discussing

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate tense of the verb in brackets:
Mr Rodricks (live) ______ in that house since he was a child and (refuse) ______ to sell it.
1) was living, will refuse
2) lives, refused
3) has been living, refuses

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate tense of the verb in brackets:
Did you just (say) ______ what I (think) _____ you (say) ______?
1) said, thought, say
2) say, think, said
3) saying, thinking, said

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate tense of the verb in brackets:
His daydreaming (interrupt) ______ when the teacher (call) ______ his name.
1) interrupted, calls
2) was interrupted, called
3) interrupts, calls

Your score is: 0 out of 15

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