Question

Open the brackets using Past Simple, Past Continuous, Past Perfect, Past Perfect Continuous. 3. His clothes were smudgy because he … (finish) painting the walls.​

Answer 1

3. His clothes were smudgy because he had finished painting the walls.  (Past Perfect)

Answer 2

To complete the sentence using different past tenses, we can use the Past Simple, Past Continuous, Past Perfect, and Past Perfect Continuous. Here are the options:

1. Past Simple: His clothes were smudgy because he finished painting the walls. - The Past Simple tense is used to describe a completed action in the past. In this case, the person finished painting the walls, which resulted in smudgy clothes.

2. Past Continuous: His clothes were smudgy because he was finishing painting the walls. - The Past Continuous tense is used to describe an ongoing action in the past. In this case, the person was in the process of finishing painting the walls, which resulted in smudgy clothes.

3. Past Perfect: His clothes were smudgy because he had finished painting the walls. - The Past Perfect tense is used to describe an action that was completed before another past action. In this case, the person had already finished painting the walls before the clothes became smudgy.

4. Past Perfect Continuous: His clothes were smudgy because he had been finishing painting the walls. - The Past Perfect Continuous tense is used to describe an ongoing action that was completed before another past action. In this case, the person had been in the process of finishing painting the walls for some time before the clothes became smudgy.

Please note that the choice of tense depends on the context and the intended meaning. The options provided above cover different aspects of the past and can be used to convey different nuances in the sentence.