Last visit was: 19 Nov 2025, 22:04 It is currently 19 Nov 2025, 22:04
Home
GMAT
Messages
Tests
Schools
Events
Rewards
Chat
My Profile
Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Go to My Error Log Learn more
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel
Back to Forum
Create Topic
   1   2 
User avatar
Jsound996
User avatar
Current Student
Joined: 19 Jan 2018
Last visit: 11 Sep 2023
Posts: 104
Own Kudos:
128
 [1]
Given Kudos: 3,158
Products:
My Reviews
Posts: 104
Kudos: 128
 [1]
The fanatical, young group of girls have been waiting in the concert 09 Mar 2019, 14:56
1
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
marus
The fanatical, young group of girls have been waiting in the concert line all night by the time the tickets go on sale.

(A) have been waiting in the concert line all night

(B) will have been waiting in the concert line each night

(C) will have been waiting in the concert line the entire night

(D) had been waiting in the concert line all night

(E) has been waiting in the concert line the whole night
Show more

The easiest error to spot is the SV agreement error in A and E: "Young group...have?" A and B are out
Next Verb Tense: because the sentence is talking about a future condition, you need "will" D and E are out

That leaves C as the correct answer!
User avatar
thangvietnam
User avatar
Joined: 29 Jun 2017
Last visit: 09 Mar 2023
Posts: 768
Own Kudos:
418
Given Kudos: 2,198
Posts: 768
Kudos: 418
The fanatical, young group of girls have been waiting in the concert Updated on: 29 Sep 2021, 00:44
Originally posted by thangvietnam on 20 Mar 2019, 21:31.
Last edited by thangvietnam on 29 Sep 2021, 00:44, edited 1 time in total.
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
will have done is used to say an action which is finished at the point of time in the future or in the present
by next sunday, I will have been a winner of gmat.
by now, she will have been at home.
only choice C fit this use.

each tense goes with some specific time adverbs. this is explained in grammar books. so, this problem is text book case
User avatar
AjiteshArun
User avatar
Major Poster
Joined: 15 Jul 2015
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 5,949
Own Kudos:
5,080
 [2]
Given Kudos: 732
Location: India
GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
GMAT 1: 780 Q50 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V169
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
GMAT 1: 780 Q50 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V169
Posts: 5,949
Kudos: 5,080
 [2]
The fanatical, young group of girls have been waiting in the concert 20 Mar 2019, 22:09
2
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
aalekhoza
Dear experts, I completely understand that the meaning of the sentence get's altered if we choose option E in this question, but isn't option c grammatically incorrect?

How can "have been" refer to a singular subject "group".
Is it that when such questions arise Meaning >>> Grammar?
IMO, such questions won't come on actual GMAT. What is the source of the question?

Kindly throw some light on this to resolve my confusion.
daagh GMATNinja sayantanc2k carcass
Show more
Option C neatly sidesteps the whole singular/plural issue by opting for a verb that doesn't change with the subject. The first thing to do here is recognize that the verb in option C is not have been. It is will have been waiting. Try switching from a singular subject to a plural subject in a sentence that has a will and check whether there is any change in the verb. You'll find that the verb remains the same.

1. Future perfect continuous
1a. He will have been waiting...
1b. They will have been waiting...

Things could, of course, change if we switch to a different tense.

2. Present perfect continuous
2a. He has been waiting...
2b. They have been waiting...
User avatar
AjiteshArun
User avatar
Major Poster
Joined: 15 Jul 2015
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 5,949
Own Kudos:
5,080
Given Kudos: 732
Location: India
GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
GMAT 1: 780 Q50 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V169
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
GMAT 1: 780 Q50 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V169
Posts: 5,949
Kudos: 5,080
The fanatical, young group of girls have been waiting in the concert 20 Mar 2019, 22:11
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
thangvietnam
will have done is used to say an action which is finished at the point of time in the future or in the present
by next sunday, I will have been a winner of gmat.
by now, she will have been at home.
only choice C fit this use.

choice b is wrong because "each night" show a repeated action for which, present simple or simple future is used.
by 7 am every morning, i will get up

am i correct at this point? pls, comment or dispute
Show more
You've got the right idea, but remember that you're looking for (a) something in the future and (b) something in the later future. This means that your second example is not correct, as now does not indicate a time or event in the future.

By now, she will have been at home.
By this time tomorrow, she will have been at home for more than a week.
User avatar
thangvietnam
User avatar
Joined: 29 Jun 2017
Last visit: 09 Mar 2023
Posts: 768
Own Kudos:
418
Given Kudos: 2,198
Posts: 768
Kudos: 418
The fanatical, young group of girls have been waiting in the concert 21 Mar 2019, 00:49
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
habit can be shown by simple present or future tense, do and will do
he will get up by 5 am every day
he get up by 5 am every day.

am i correct at this point?
User avatar
AjiteshArun
User avatar
Major Poster
Joined: 15 Jul 2015
Last visit: 18 Nov 2025
Posts: 5,949
Own Kudos:
5,080
Given Kudos: 732
Location: India
GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
GMAT 1: 780 Q50 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V169
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT Focus 1: 715 Q83 V90 DI83
GMAT 1: 780 Q50 V51
GRE 1: Q170 V169
Posts: 5,949
Kudos: 5,080
The fanatical, young group of girls have been waiting in the concert 21 Mar 2019, 03:22
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
thangvietnam
habit can be shown by simple present or future tense, do and will do
he will get up by 5 am every day
he get up by 5 am every day.

am i correct at this point?
Show more
Yes, the future tense can be used to discuss some (future) regular action or habit. The difference between the two examples you gave is that the present tense indicates that the habit is already in place and could continue, while the future tense does not establish that the habit is already in place, only that it will be in place in the future.

Also, in case it helps, we must write he gets..., not he get.
User avatar
Yashir
User avatar
Joined: 18 Nov 2018
Last visit: 19 Dec 2022
Posts: 2
Own Kudos:
1
Given Kudos: 734
Location: Bangladesh
Concentration: Marketing, Nonprofit
GPA: 3.25
Posts: 2
Kudos: 1
The fanatical, young group of girls have been waiting in the concert 28 Mar 2019, 16:28
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Thinking about all night or each night is rather irrational than the entire night with respect to the intended meaning of the sentence
User avatar
generis
User avatar
Senior SC Moderator
Joined: 22 May 2016
Last visit: 18 Jun 2022
Posts: 5,272
Own Kudos:
37,390
Given Kudos: 9,464
Expert
Expert reply
Posts: 5,272
Kudos: 37,390
The fanatical, young group of girls have been waiting in the concert 28 Mar 2019, 17:02
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
marus
The fanatical, young group of girls have been waiting in the concert line all night by the time the tickets go on sale.

(A) have been waiting in the concert line all night

(B) will have been waitingin the concert line each night

(C) will have been waiting in the concert line the entire night

(D) had been waiting in the concert line all night

(E) has been waiting in the concert line the whole night
Show more

Yashir
Thinking about all night or each night is rather irrational than the entire night with respect to the intended meaning of the sentence
Show more
Yashir , I don't understand your comment.

All night, the whole night, and the entire night are all acceptable forms
of expressing a complete period of time.

What distinction are you making between all night and the entire night?

"Each" night is absurd, I agree. We can eliminate (B).

But after that we have to look at the verbs.
sudarshan22 , wrote a masterful post, here.
User avatar
Yashir
User avatar
Joined: 18 Nov 2018
Last visit: 19 Dec 2022
Posts: 2
Own Kudos:
1
 [1]
Given Kudos: 734
Location: Bangladesh
Concentration: Marketing, Nonprofit
GPA: 3.25
Posts: 2
Kudos: 1
 [1]
The fanatical, young group of girls have been waiting in the concert 28 Mar 2019, 18:01
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
generis
all night, the whole night, and the entire night are all 100% perfect to express a time-frame. However, my explanation was half without considering the tense and verb of the given sentence. Additionally, my understanding of all night was consecutive nights for a longer period of time. The concept was wrong after all.

GMAT doesn't approve colloquial English when the meaning and the structure of the sentences are examined.
sudarshan22 gave a perfect clarification on the given sentence.
User avatar
thangvietnam
User avatar
Joined: 29 Jun 2017
Last visit: 09 Mar 2023
Posts: 768
Own Kudos:
418
Given Kudos: 2,198
Posts: 768
Kudos: 418
The fanatical, young group of girls have been waiting in the concert 02 Aug 2019, 03:33
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
egmat
Hi,

@marus: This sentence needs careful reading. Read the portion “by the time tickets go on sale.” This suggests a future action. We know that the tickets are not up for sale yet. They will be sold some time in the future.

This understanding helps us in eliminating choice E as it is written in the present perfect tense and hence leads to inconsistency in tense in the sentence.

With choice E, the sentence reads: The fanatical, young group of girls has been waiting in the concert line the whole night by the time the tickets go on sale.
The present perfect tense “has been waiting” denotes an action that has already begun in some time in the past and is continuing in the present as well. It renders the sense that the group of girls has already begun to wait in the line for the tickets which will be sold sometime in the future. This is not the logical intended meaning of the sentence.
The logical intended meaning of the sentence is that By the time the tickets will be up for sale, these girls will have been waiting in the line already.

Take this example: By the time Joe appears for the exam, he will have been completely prepared. The sense of the sentence is that by the time Joe will appear for the exam, he will be completely prepared.
However, we do not if he is completely prepared in the present or not. The sentence says nothing about the present. It talks about a situation that is yet to happen.

We cannot say: By the time Joe appears for the exam, he has been completely prepared. “has been prepared” suggests that Joe is already prepared in the present and it does not relate to the event that will take place in the future, i. e. appearing for the exam.

In the very same way, the original sentence is also talking about a situation that is yet to happen. Hence we must use future tense to correspond the related event with that future event only. Again, understanding the intended logical meaning of the sentence is the key here to use the correct verb tense knowledge.

Choice C correctly conveys the logical intended meaning of the sentence: The fanatical, young group of girls will have been waiting in the concert line the entire night by the time the tickets go on sale. This choice clearly says that by the time the tickets will be up for sale, the girls will already be standing in the line from the previous night.
Say for example if the tickets will be sold on February 3, the girls will already have been standing in the line from the night of February 2.

Hope this helps.
Shraddha
Show more

great explanation. but permit me to post more

future perfect is explained in the book "advanced grammar in use ". this tense is used to show an action which is finished before a point of time in FUTURE OR PRESENT. . this mean it can show an action happen in the past.

by now, he will have finished the gmat test and will have become a Havard student.
by tomorow, he will have finished the gmat test.

we can not say that " by the time the ticket go on sale" show a future time. it can show a present or future time.

by now, the time at which the tickets go on sale, he will have waited for 3 hours.

"by the time ticket go on sale " whether it show present or future point of time, can be fit with "will have done" and choice C is good.

but how to eliminate choice E.

present perfect shows an action which continue until present or finished at a past point of time but its times frame or its context continue until present.

if "by the time ticket go on sale " is future point of time, present perfect dose not fit.

if "by the time ticket go on sale" is present point of time, present perfect still dose not fit because

"by+time marker" implies that context and action finished before present . THIS IS KEY POINT to explain why by+time marker can go with future perfect and past perfect but not with present perfect.

so, present perfect showing action continued until present or action's context continued until present dose not fit with by+time marker.

by+time marker can normally go with past perfect, if the phrase show past point of time or go will future perfect , if the phrase show present or future time and the phrase never go with present perfect.

the idiom to remember is " by+time maker " never go with present perfect but with past perfect or future perfect. rather easy to remember.

if present perfect show an action finished in the past, no time maker is used. if present perfect show an action which continue until present, "since" is used

I have passed gmat.
we never say
I have passed gmat by now.

I wish everybody talk more on why choice e is wrong while "by the time tickets go on sale" shows present point of time.

thank you
User avatar
MSIMBA
User avatar
Joined: 04 Jun 2017
Last visit: 14 Aug 2020
Posts: 73
Own Kudos:
40
Given Kudos: 180
Location: India
Concentration: Strategy, Operations
GMAT 1: 500 Q39 V20
GPA: 3.82
GMAT 1: 500 Q39 V20
Posts: 73
Kudos: 40
The fanatical, young group of girls have been waiting in the concert 03 Aug 2019, 02:59
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
aalekhoza
Dear experts, I completely understand that the meaning of the sentence get's altered if we choose option E in this question, but isn't option c grammatically incorrect?

How can "have been" refer to a singular subject "group".
Is it that when such questions arise Meaning >>> Grammar?
IMO, such questions won't come on actual GMAT. What is the source of the question?

Kindly throw some light on this to resolve my confusion.
daagh GMATNinja sayantanc2k carcass
Show more


experts through some light ,,,,,where is SC rule ???
User avatar
MSIMBA
User avatar
Joined: 04 Jun 2017
Last visit: 14 Aug 2020
Posts: 73
Own Kudos:
40
Given Kudos: 180
Location: India
Concentration: Strategy, Operations
GMAT 1: 500 Q39 V20
GPA: 3.82
GMAT 1: 500 Q39 V20
Posts: 73
Kudos: 40
The fanatical, young group of girls have been waiting in the concert 04 Aug 2019, 04:33
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
marus
The fanatical, young group of girls have been waiting in the concert line all night by the time the tickets go on sale.

(A) have been waiting in the concert line all night

(B) will have been waiting in the concert line each night

(C) will have been waiting in the concert line the entire night

(D) had been waiting in the concert line all night

(E) has been waiting in the concert line the whole night
Show more

Verb tense

group of girls has/have been = group is singular but girls is plural

verb is directly in contact with girls so plural verb will be there " have "

will have to be used as future activity is mentioned
User avatar
VerbalBot
User avatar
Non-Human User
Joined: 01 Oct 2013
Last visit: 04 Jan 2021
Posts: 18,832
Own Kudos:
986
Posts: 18,832
Kudos: 986
The fanatical, young group of girls have been waiting in the concert 29 Oct 2022, 08:00
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.
   1   2 
Moderators:
GMATNinja
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
7443 posts
GMATNinjaTwo
GMAT Club Verbal Expert
231 posts
miag
189 posts