Question

Fill in the blank with the correct word.
Today's Headline: The Indian team ________ another Olympic gold medal.

• A. had won
• B. have won
• C. won
• D. wins

Hint:

Remember that newspaper headlines are written in the simple present tense, even for past events.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

English newspaper headlines follow a special convention of their own, different from the tense rules used in the body of a news report. Even when an event has already happened, headlines are written in the simple present tense to give a sense of immediacy. We need to pick the verb form that follows this headline style.

1. had won: This is the past perfect tense, used to show an action completed before another past action. Headlines never use this tense, so it is wrong here.
2. have won: This is the present perfect tense, used in ordinary sentences to link a past action to the present moment, but it is not the tense headlines use.
3. won: This is the simple past tense, correct for a news report's body text, but headlines avoid the simple past in favor of the simple present.
4. wins: This is the simple present tense, which is exactly the tense headlines use to report events that have already taken place, giving the news a sense of freshness.

The correct option is "wins" because the sentence is explicitly labeled as a headline, and headlines use the simple present tense even for completed events.

Let's summarize:

• Newspaper headlines are written in the simple present tense, unlike the news report itself, which uses the past tense.
• "Had won", "have won" and "won" all belong to tenses used in regular sentences or reports, not in headlines.

So the correct word to complete the headline is "wins", option (d).