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ACT English 2.3 Grammar and Usage 413 Views


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Description:

ACT English: Grammar and Usage Drill 2, Problem 3. Which choice best replaces the underlined portion?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the past perfect tense. It's probably not

00:08

as perfect as it thinks it is.

00:11

What should replace the underlined words below?

00:13

I had began to sing when she stopped me hurriedly.

00:22

In this sentence, we'll need to determine the proper forms of two verbs, so we'll have

00:27

to do a little multitasking.

00:29

We hope this goes better than the time we tried to fry an egg and talk on the phone

00:32

at the same time.

00:33

Luckily, the helping verb "had" is around to give us a helping hand, so it shouldn't

00:39

be too much of a chore.

00:41

Since we have a helping verb, we know that we need the past participle 'begun" to go

00:46

along with it.

00:47

Therefore we can cross out both (A) and (B), which use the present tense "began."

00:51

Sorry, fellas, but you're just too independent to appreciate Had's overly helpful ways.

00:59

Both (C) and (D) use the past participle "begun," so we're going to have to look at the second

01:02

half of the sentence to eliminate one of them.

01:05

Looks like (D) is the one to go because "had begun to sing" signals that the other verb

01:11

in the sentence is in the past tense, not the past perfect tense.

01:18

That leaves us with choice (C), which correctly uses the past perfect and then the past tense

01:23

to let us know just how hurriedly this guy got silenced when he tried to sing.

01:27

Sounds like our weekly office karaoke party.

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