Verb Forms and Tenses Flashcards

Choose the correct option: "By the time the external auditors arrive next Monday, the finance team ___ on the annual report for nearly three weeks."

Answer: will have been working

The future perfect continuous (will have been + -ing) describes an action that will have been in progress for a period of time up to a point in the future. 'By the time... next Monday' sets that future point, and 'for nearly three weeks' gives the duration. 'Would have been working' is conditional and needs a hypothetical situation, which this sentence does not have.

Choose the correct option: "If she hadn't turned down that job offer in 2019, she ___ in Singapore now."

Answer: would be living

This is a mixed conditional. The if-clause uses the past perfect for an unreal past condition (she turned the offer down). The main clause uses 'would + be + -ing' for the unreal present result, and the word 'now' signals that present. 'Would have lived' would only refer to the past, which clashes with 'now'.

Choose the most formally correct option: "The board of directors has insisted that the CEO ___ before the shareholders' meeting."

Answer: resign

Verbs of demand, insistence or recommendation (insist, demand, recommend, propose) take the mandative subjunctive in formal English. This is the base form of the verb with no -s, even with a third-person singular subject: 'that the CEO resign.' 'Resigns' is common in informal British English but is not the formal standard, and 'resigned' or 'has resigned' would report a fact rather than a demand.

Choose the correct option: "Hardly ___ onto the stage when the power failed and the whole theatre went dark."

Answer: had she stepped

When a negative adverb such as 'Hardly', 'Scarcely' or 'No sooner' starts a sentence, the subject and auxiliary swap places (inversion). 'Hardly... when' describes one past event happening immediately before another, so it takes the past perfect: 'Hardly had she stepped... when...'. 'She had stepped' is missing the inversion. 'Did she step' uses the wrong tense for this pattern, and 'has she stepped' doesn't fit a past narrative.

Which sentence uses the continuous form correctly?

Answer: I'm seeing the consultant tomorrow afternoon about my results.

'See' is usually a stative verb when it means 'perceive'. Here it means 'meet' or 'have an appointment with', which is a dynamic meaning, so the present continuous is correct and describes a fixed future arrangement. 'Own', 'belong' and 'need' express possession or necessity. These are stative meanings, so they normally take simple forms: 'owns', 'belongs', 'need'.

Choose the correct option: "I'd rather you ___ my email to anyone until the merger has been officially announced."

Answer: didn't forward

When 'would rather' introduces a different subject ('I'd rather you...'), the verb goes into the past simple to refer to the present or future. So it is 'I'd rather you didn't forward...'. The past perfect ('hadn't forwarded') is used only for regrets about the past. Present and future forms ('don't', 'won't') are not used after 'would rather' with a new subject.