Question

Replace the underlined tense form with the correct option.
The guests just left when I entered Sunny’s house.
A) Just leave
B) Have just left
C) Had just left
D) Had just been left

Answer 1

Hint:Tenses are used to indicate the time, continuation or the completeness whether a sentence or verb is an action in the past, the present or the future. Tenses are used to refer to time.
For example: Present tense: I play football; past tense: I had played football; future tense: I will play football.

Complete answer:
The guests just left when I entered Sunny’s house is in past tense. So, it is very much required to fill the underlined words in past perfect tense.
Past perfect tense to talk about the actions that were completed before some point in time. For example: Had met: He had met her before the party.
Option A) Just leave – is an incorrect answer because ‘just leave’ is in simple present tense and the given sentence is in past tense. So, the use of this option is an incorrect choice as it will change the meaning if the tense is changed.
Option B) Have just left – is an incorrect answer because ‘have just left’ is in present perfect tense. Present perfect tense describes an action that has been completed recently. And this option does not relate to the second part of the sentence ‘when I entered Sunny’s house’. So, the use of have just left is an incorrect answer.
Option C) Had just left – is the correct answer because ‘had just left’ is past perfect tense. ‘The guests had just left when I entered Sunny’s house’ gives an appropriate answer and gives the meaning to the sentence. Thus, this is the correct answer.
Option D) Had just been left – is an incorrect answer because ‘had just been left’ is in the passive voice. Thus, this option is completely incorrect.
The guests had just left when I entered Sunny’s house. Option C.

Hence the correct answer is option C.

Note: In the given sentence, where one event 'the guests (left)' takes place before another 'I entered house'. Hence the underlined verb form must be in the past perfect tense. Past perfect means past of the past. 'Just left' is not in the required tense form in the sentence. Hence it must be changed. So, Option C is the most appropriate answer as compared to any other option.