Question

Identify the best version of the sentence:
Incorrect: She was knowing the answer but didn't speak.

• A. She knows the answer but didn't speak.
• B. She was known the answer but didn't speak.
• C. She knew the answer but didn't speak.
• D. She had know the answer but didn't speak.

Hint:

Stative verbs like know, believe, love, or understand rarely take continuous forms (-ing). Match verb tenses to the sentence’s time frame (e.g., past with past). Test options by checking for tense consistency and correct verb forms.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

The verb know is a stative verb, describing a state of mind or being, and is not typically used in the continuous tense (e.g., was knowing).
Option (C) corrects this by using the simple past knew, which matches the past-tense context of didn't speak and conveys that she possessed knowledge at that time.
Option (A) uses knows (present tense), creating a tense mismatch with didn't speak (past tense).
Option (B) incorrectly uses was known, a passive voice construction implying someone else knew her, not that she knew the answer.
Option (D) uses had know, which is grammatically incorrect; the correct past perfect form is had known, but it’s less suitable here since there’s no earlier past event to justify the past perfect.
Thus, (C) is the grammatically and contextually correct choice.