Tag: softskills

Active voice makes writing more direct, clear, and engaging. In active voice, the subject performs the action, which is generally preferred in business and professional communication over passive voice's indirect style.

This is a third conditional sentence describing a hypothetical past situation. The structure requires "had contacted" (past perfect) in the if-clause and "could have set up" (modal perfect) in the main clause to express unreal past conditions.

To solve this question, the user needs to understand the correct form of the verb "realize" in the past perfect tense. The user should also be familiar with the meaning of the phrase "realize the figures" and how it relates to the context of the sentence.

Explanation of each option:

A. been realized: This option is incorrect. The past perfect tense of "realize" is "had realized," not "been realized." The verb "realize" is not a passive verb, so it does not take the auxiliary verb "been."

B. been realizing: This option is incorrect. The past perfect tense of "realize" is "had realized," not "been realizing." The verb "realize" is not a continuous verb, so it does not take the auxiliary verb "been."

C. realize: This option is incorrect. The phrase "had realized" is used in the past perfect tense to indicate that the realization occurred before another past event. The base form "realize" does not convey this meaning.

D. realized: This option is correct. The past perfect tense of "realize" is "had realized." In the context of the sentence, the past perfect tense is used to indicate that the realization occurred before the time of speaking or another past event. The correct form of the verb to use in this context is "realized."

The correct answer is: D. realized

The sentence states a general fact about Visa being Mastercard's main competitor, which requires simple present tense "is." "Is being" suggests a temporary state, which is incorrect for this ongoing competitive relationship.

Present continuous tense "are negotiating" correctly describes an action happening right now. Negotiated is past participle, being negotiated is passive voice, and had negotiated is past perfect - none fit the current ongoing action context.

Present continuous passive "is being negotiated" correctly shows the contract part is receiving the action of negotiation currently. Being negotiated is passive, while the active forms don't work for this object-focused construction.

The sentence requires the simple past tense to match 'successfully' as an adverb modifying the verb. 'Negotiated' correctly completes the active voice construction 'We successfully negotiated the inclusion of that amendment'. 'Had negotiated' (past perfect) would require another past event for sequencing, while 'being negotiated' and 'negotiating' would need auxiliary verbs like 'are/were' to be grammatical.

'Until' in time expressions typically requires negative logic to show something is NOT the case before a certain point. 'Won't be' correctly expresses that the outcome will NOT be known before next week arrives. 'Will be' would create a contradiction with 'until', 'have' is the wrong tense entirely, and 'Option 1 or 3' is nonsensical.