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The leftover is no longer edible for it _____ on the table for hours.
(a) is being left
(b) has been left
Are both choices correct? I think since there is "for hours" there it indicates a time period therefore "is being" is not suitable? I'm not sure though.
Choice (a) is incorrect. The biggest problem with (a) is that it uses present tense for something that had already happened.
You could change it to “was being left,” and that is technically grammatical English, but it still sounds bad because needless double usage of the verb “to be.”
So the most correct version of (a) would simply be “was left.”
The leftover is no longer edible for it _____ on the table for hours. (b) has been left
Owing to using the preposition "for"before "hours" which expresses a period times, The clause that expresses "the reason"; "for" is conjunction, has to use the past perfect tense.
