Question

Rewrite the following sentence using the correct tense of the verbs given in the brackets:
Sanchit (standing) across the road and (wait) for me. When he (see) me, he (wave) to me. I could not understand what he (say) because the moving vehicles (make) so much noise.
a) stood, was waiting, saw, had waved, say, made
b) were standing, waited, seen, waved, said, make
c) was standing, was waiting, saw, waved, was saying, were making
d) had stood, waited, seen, waved, was saying, were making

Answer 1

Hint: To write the correct tense, we have to read the entire given sentence and convert the words given in the brackets into the tense which is suitable according to the tense of the given sentence.

Complete step-by-step answer:
The first word is ‘standing’. It is in the continuous tense. We have to add a helping verb to show when he was standing. This narration is about something which had already happened so the correct tense will be ‘was standing’. The second word is ‘wait’. Since we have already started the sentence with a past continuous tense, the second word should also be in the past continuous tense. Therefore, the tense of ‘wait’ will be ‘was waiting’. The third word is ‘see’. This is in the present tense. Since we are talking about the past, therefore, ‘see’ will be converted into ‘saw’. Automatically, ‘wave’ too will become ‘waved’. In the next sentence, the author is saying that because of the noise of the vehicles, he could not hear what Sanchit was saying. Therefore, Sanchit was saying something while the vehicles were making noise. Both the actions were happening together. Thus, both the words ‘say’ and ‘make’ will be in the past continuous tense. They will be written as ‘was saying’ and ‘was making’.
Thus, the whole sentence, after conversion into the appropriate tenses will be, ‘Sanchit was standing across the road and was waiting for me. When he saw me, he waved to me. I could not understand what he was saying because the moving vehicles were making so much noise.’

Therefore, the correct answer is option c.

Note: The first given word which is to be converted into the appropriate tense should be converted carefully because the rest of the tenses will be written according to that first tense. Also, the whole paragraph should be re-read after writing the tenses to see if it is making sense.