Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word-
He _______ out five minutes ago.
a) Has gone
b) Had gone
c) Went
d) None of these

Answer 1

Hint: Read the given sentence carefully, try to make out its core meaning. Make out the subject, predicate, and object of the sentence.

Complete answer:
 In the given question, we have to find out the correct tense form of the word ‘go' to fill in the given blank. Tense is a category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their conjugation patterns. The main tenses found in many languages include the past, present, and future.
Now, let us examine all the given options to find out the correct answer-
Option ‘a’ is Has gone. It cannot be the correct answer as it is in the past perfect tense, whereas the sentence needs only the past tense of ‘go’, which is ‘went’. So, we will eliminate this option.
Option ‘b’ is Had gone. It is also not the correct answer as the tense form doesn’t align with that of the given sentence.
Option ‘c’ is Went. It is the correct option as it is the past tense of ‘go’, which is required in the given blank.
Option ‘d’ is None of the above. This option has to be chosen when all the other three options are either incorrect or not suitable for the given sentence. Hence, option ‘c’ is the correct option.

Note:
All the other options are plausible distractions. English has only two morphological tenses- the present (or non-past), as in he goes, and the past (or preterite), as in he went. The non-past usually references the present, but sometimes references the future (as in the bus leaves tomorrow).