Combine the following sentences into a single sentence:
The floodwater had gone down. The villagers returned to their homes.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → The floodwater having gone down, the villagers returned to their homes.
Joining with an opening phrase that has its own subject:
- The two sentences have different subjects: “the floodwater” and “the villagers”.
- So the first sentence becomes a phrase with its own subject: The floodwater having gone down. “Having gone” shows that this happened first.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: Having gone down, the villagers returned to their homes. — Incorrect. The opening “Having gone down” has no subject of its own, so it belongs to “the villagers”. It says that the villagers went down.
Option 3: The villagers having returned to their homes, the floodwater went down. — Incorrect. This reverses the order of the actions. The water went down first, and the villagers returned after that.
Option 4: The floodwater having went down, the villagers returned to their homes. — Incorrect. The option says “having went”. After “having”, the verb takes the past participle (V3): “gone”, not “went”.