Question

Fill in the blank with an appropriate verb.
The police _________ arrested the thief.
A. Have
B. Has
C. If
D. Were

Answer 1

Hint:The given sentence suggests an event that has happened and is sustained. The noun police is a collective noun. Therefore, the verb to be followed will be in a plural form. We will look for an option that is in the plural form and matches appropriately.

Complete answer:
Let us analyse each option individually in detail to figure out the correct answer with the help of the above stated hint.
Have : The verb ‘have’ means to engage in or carry on a task. Here, in the given sentence the police have completed a task of arresting. Also, the verb ‘have’ is in the plural form. Therefore, this is the correct option.

Has : The verb ‘has’ is not in a plural form. It is a singular form of verb. Therefore, this is not the correct option.

Is: The verb ‘is’ means to be. And also it is in singular form. This is no match with the given sentence. Therefore, this is not the correct option.

Were: The verb ‘were’ is in plural form but it is a past indicative. The sentence suggests a present continuous action. Therefore, this is not the correct option.

Hence, the correct answer is option ‘A’.

Note: The given sentence suggests an action that has occurred and is still prevalent in the present. Therefore, the tense here is the present continuous tense. The final correct sentence becomes “The police have arrested the thief”. This is correct in every sense of English language.