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Today in our exam I saw this multiple choice question

We......(go) to Egypt in 2016

1-We will go to Egypt in 2016
2-We went to Egypt in 2016
3-We are going to Egypt in 2016
4-We go to Egypt in 2016

Which one is correct ?

I told my friends that the answer Can be the first and the second , if we don't care about which year we are but if the sentence completed with other words like we saw many things in egypt the answer will be the second choice ... which one from us are correct because they said the answer is second choice

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    2016 is in the past.
    – Colin Fine
    Jul 22, 2020 at 12:07

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As @ColinFine pointed out, since 2016 is in the past (we are currently in 2020), you should use the past tense. Therefore, in the context of your exam, I believe that answer (2) would be correct.

HOWEVER, all of these sentences are completely correct but they are used at different times.

1-We will go to Egypt in 2016 If this sentence was spoken in the past, before 2016, it makes sense that the speaker was looking forward to 2016, which would be the future

2-We went to Egypt in 2016 This makes sense. It is now 2020, and we went to Egypt in 2016.

3-We are going to Egypt in 2016 This is the same as answer (1), just written differently. It is just as correct as (1), and it refers to the future.

4-We go to Egypt in 2016 This is a weird one... I hear some native english speakers saying this, however I think it is improper english -- it should be We (will) go to Egypt... but the (will) is implied so it's not mentioned in the sentence. I would just avoid using this sentence structure.

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    You could say "We go to Egypt in 2016" if you're telling an anecdote in the historical present tense, or if you're talking about a proposed plan of action ("Here's an idea. We save as much money as we can this year and next year. We go to Egypt in 2016.") But I think it would definitely be rare.
    – Tanner Swett
    Jul 22, 2020 at 16:59
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    The simple present can be used for habitual conduct ("We go to Egypt every summer") or for future ("We go to Egypt next week"). Note that "Egypt" is a proper noun, should be capitalized.
    – Acccumulation
    Nov 12, 2020 at 0:50
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    simple present can also be used to describe fixed plans. It's normally only used to describe something happening in the near future, for example an itinerary for the following week "We go to Luxor on Tuesday" but there is no grammatical reason why you cannot use it about planned events years in advance.
    – JavaLatte
    Nov 12, 2020 at 1:55

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