Verb forms exercises

Tenses

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate form of the verbs given in brackets.

One day a wolf was drinking (be drink) at a stream. He saw (see) a lamb who was (be) farther down. The wolf made up his mind to eat the lamb, but he thought (think) that he would find (will find) some excuse for doing so. He ran ( run) up to the lamb and said, "How dare you muddy the water that I am drinking (be drink)". The lamb replied, "I do not see (do not see) how that can be, since the water of the stream is running (be run) from you to me and not from me to you."

It was a curious trunk. When the lock was pressed (be press), the trunk would fly. The merchant's son crouched (crouched) inside, pressed ( press) the lock and up flew ( fly ) the trunk through the chimney into the clouds. After a while the lower part cracked, which frightened (frighten) him, for it had broken (have break) in two, he would have had ( will have have) a nasty fall. However, it descended (descend) safely and he found himself in Turkey.

Explanation:

Whenever you find “be” with verbs in brackets such as (be drink), you are replacing “be” with one of the to be forms of the helping verbs.

To be forms of Helping Verbs:

Present Tense - am, is, are

Past Tense - was were

The main verb takes ‘ing’ or Past Participle form depending on the time of action.

Ex:

One day a wolf was drinking (be drink) at a stream.

Here, the tense is Past. Hence, be form takes was and the main verb takes ing referring to the continuous action in the past.

When the lock was pressed (be press), the trunk would fly.

Here, the subject is passive. The verbs used are be + past participle referring to action done on the subject in the past.

"How dare you muddy the water that I am drinking (be drink)".

It looks like the verbs should be used in the past continuous tense based on the paragraph which begins with a Past tone. But, the quotation marks used indicate that the speaker’s words are quoted directly in the Present Tense.

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