Choose the past tense version: "Yesterday, they ______ to the store and ______ milk".

Choose the past tense version: "Yesterday, they ______ to the store and ______ milk".

• A. go, buy
• B. went, bought
• C. goes, buys
• D. going, buying

Answer: (B)

When you see the word yesterday, it tells us the actions happened in the past, so the verbs need to be in simple past tense. The subject is they, so the past forms are went for go and bought for buy. Using both in the past tense keeps the sentence consistent and shows that both actions occurred in the past: they went to the store and bought milk. The other forms—go, goes, buying, going—are present tense or -ing forms, which don’t fit a sentence about yesterday. So the sentence should read: Yesterday, they went to the store and bought milk.

When you see the word yesterday, it tells us the actions happened in the past, so the verbs need to be in simple past tense. The subject is they, so the past forms are went for go and bought for buy. Using both in the past tense keeps the sentence consistent and shows that both actions occurred in the past: they went to the store and bought milk. The other forms—go, goes, buying, going—are present tense or -ing forms, which don’t fit a sentence about yesterday. So the sentence should read: Yesterday, they went to the store and bought milk.