Question

Following the tornado, telephone poles _________all over the street.
a.laid
b.lied
c.were lying
d.were laying

Answer 1

Heya!!

Following the tornado, telephone poles were lying all over the street.

Thanks!

Answer 2

Following the tornado, telephone poles d.were laying all over the street.

Correct form of tenses of verbs:

• Tenses play a major role in forming and shaping a sentence. They show the time of the action performed in the sentence.
• So we should always make sure to use the correct form of tenses for our verbs. Here, the tense or the time of the sentence is hidden.
• Thus, it gets confusing to use the correct verb form, but we know that there will be a helping verb before the verb 'lay' in the sentence.
• So the correct answer or the verb form will be 'were laying'. As the verb, 'lay' in the past tense becomes 'laid' and cannot be used without a helping verb.
• The verbs 'lied' and 'were lying' are not accurate as the verb is 'lay' and these are the past forms of the verb 'lie'.
• As the sentence is narrated in the past and our subject is plural in nature, the helping verb 'were' will be used with the continuous form of verb 'lay' that is 'laying'.

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