Choose the correct option to fill in the blank: I ......... a letter to him yesterday.

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct option is 1:

When completing a sentence like "I ......... a letter to him yesterday," students must focus on the time indicator used in the sentence. The presence of the adverb of time "yesterday" is the absolute key to choosing the correct tense. "Yesterday" explicitly refers to a completed action that took place at a specific, definite point in the past. Therefore, the Simple Past Tense is the only correct tense to use in this context. The structure for the Simple Past Tense is Subject + Past Simple form of the Verb (V2). For the verb "to write," the V2 form is "wrote." Thus, "I wrote a letter to him yesterday" correctly conveys a single, finished action that happened at a precise time in the past. This grammatical rule is foundational: Simple Past Tense must be used for actions completed at a specific past time, which is clearly marked by temporal phrases like *yesterday*, *last week*, *three days ago*, or *in 2010*.

The incorrect option is 2 (have written):

"Have written" uses the Present Perfect Tense (Subject + has/have + V3). The Present Perfect Tense is used for actions that started in the past but have a connection to the present, or for actions that happened at an unspecified time in the past. Crucially, it must never be used with specific past time markers like "yesterday." Using "I have written a letter to him yesterday" is grammatically incorrect because the time is specified.

The incorrect option is 3 (have been writing):

"Have been writing" uses the Present Perfect Continuous Tense (Subject + has/have + been + V-ing). This tense is used to show an action that began in the past and is still continuing up to the present moment, or has just recently stopped, but often with an emphasis on duration. Since the sentence explicitly refers to an action completed and dated with the word "yesterday," the continuous nature of this tense is inappropriate.

The incorrect option is 4 (had wrote):

"Had wrote" attempts to use the Past Perfect Tense (Subject + had + V3). While the Past Perfect Tense is a past tense, it is used to indicate an action that was completed before another action in the past. Furthermore, "had wrote" is grammatically flawed. The Past Perfect requires the Past Participle (V3) form of the verb, which for "to write" is "written," not the incorrect form "wrote." Therefore, Option 4 is incorrect both conceptually (due to the presence of "yesterday") and structurally (due to the wrong verb form).