JAMB 2018 English Language · Question 63

We saw you earlier but we could not stop you because we did not know … .

Question

choose the word(s) or phrase(s) which best fill(s) the gap(s). We saw you earlier but we could not stop you because we did not know __________.

A.Where you were going.
B.Where you are going
C.Where are you going.
D.Where were you going.

Answer: A. Where you were going.

Explanation written with AI and checked against the answer key

Analyze the question The sentence is in the past tense: "We saw you earlier but we could not stop you because we did not know __." The gap needs a noun clause that follows "know", so we're testing reported (indirect) speech and word order.

Concept

After verbs like know, ask, wonder, tell, a question becomes an indirect question. It uses statement word order (subject + verb), not question order (verb + subject). • Direct: Where are you going? • Indirect: I don't know where you are going.
Sequence of tenses: when the main verb is in the past (did not know), the verb in the noun clause normally shifts to the past too (were going).

Solution

C. "Where are you going" and D. "Where were you going" use question order (verb before subject), so they are wrong after "know".
B. "Where you are going" has correct word order, but the present tense clashes with the past-tense main clause (we did not know). The moment of not knowing was in the past, when you were going somewhere.
A. "Where you were going" has correct statement word order and the past tense that matches did not know and saw you earlier.

(The full stops in the options are just formatting from the question bank. The sentence's own punctuation closes it.)

Answer: A.

Tip For indirect questions, check two things:

Is the word order subject + verb? Remove any question order.
Does the tense match the main verb? A past main verb usually takes a past verb in the clause.

AI can make mistakes. Report anything that looks wrong.