ShmoopTube

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Here's an unshmoopy question you may find on your exam...

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Fill in the blank:

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He ________ to the grocery store after work yesterday.

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And here are the potential answers:

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So... what is this question asking?

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It wants to know we have a good... sense of tense.

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The KEY word that we have to recognize is the very last one: Yesterday. As in

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Yesterday... all my troubles seemed so far away...... yeah, that one.

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"He goes to the grocery store" would work if we were describing his every day after-school

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activity -- but here it's a finite time -- yesterday -- so A is out.

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"Is going" has kinda the same connotation. It means something is happening in the present

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or near-future... certainly not yesterday.

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"Has gone" is closer because it's past tense... but it's a little vague. It's

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really saying that, "oh, at various times in the past, he has gone..." but it's

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not indicating a specific day.

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So the only one left is 'went' which covers a finite period of time. Yesterday... love

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was such an easy game to play...

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Our answer is D.

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