Foundation
English
Verb
Tenses
Tenses
Question
Fill in the blank with an appropriate modal:
No one knew whether he ______ come or not.
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Solution
'Knew' is the past form of the word 'know' thus it represents that the sentence is in the past tense.
Option B is therefore incorrect as 'will' is not in the past form.
Option C 'can' is used to express ability but is not used in the past form. Therefore it is incorrect.
Option A is incorrect because 'may' is used to express permission usually, or also to express probability.
Option D is the correct answer because 'would' is the past tense form of 'will', so it is used to talk about the past, or to talk about hypothetical situations – things that are imagined rather than true and also for politeness.