LESSON 2
Verb Tense & Form
The next grammar concept on the SAT & ACT is relatively simple for the majority of students.
This is the concept of Verb Tense and Form.
First of all, I recommend reviewing Prelesson A on Parts of Speech, particularly the information
on verbs. Remember that verbs are the “doing” or “being” words in English. They show actions
(like “the dog barks) or “states of being” (like “the cat is happy”).
Verbs are also the words in English responsible for showing when the action of the sentence is
happening. This concept is called “Verb Tense.” There are “future tense,” “present tense,” and
“past tense” versions of every verb, and other more-advanced tense options as well.
Here are some simple examples of the most common verb tenses:
I run (present tense)
I ran (past tense)
I will run (future tense)
The main source of Verb Tense questions on the SAT & ACT tests arise from an incorrect
sequence of events, for example:
“Once I have my own car, I had driven to the movie theater.”
In this example, the past-tense verb “had driven” is directly contradicting the timeline of the
sentence - a timeline that shows the narrator does not have a car yet. So, it would be logically
impossible to already have driven to the movie theater in the past. This is an example of a basic
Verb Tense error: the timeline doesn’t make sense, because a verb is in the wrong tense.
Let’s fix the situation by changing the verb to future tense.
“Once I have my own car, I will drive to the movie theater.”
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Most Verb Tense errors are easy to find and explain - just stay on the lookout for any illogical
timelines or sequences.
Verb Form is similar to Verb Tense, but slightly different. In fact, sometimes I just use “Verb
Form” as my general name for other verb-based mistakes. Here’s an example of what I call a
“Verb Form” mistake:
“Please let me to go shopping!”
In this case, we should not use the infinitive verb form “to go”, but rather the simple present
tense form “go.”
“Please let me go shopping!”
Note: Making the correct choice of Verb Tense & Form is often linked to the rule of Parallelism
(see Lesson 10). Many questions that initially look like Verb Tense can turn out to actually be
about Parallelism. Look for both of these rules to appear together often!
Now let’s look at a simple example from the Pretest:
Project SCORE was the first communications satellite ever put into Earth’s
orbit, and it will be launched on December 18, 1958.
(A) [NO CHANGE]
(B) it was launched
(C) they were launched
(D) it is launched
Notice that the main underlined portion of this sentence focuses on a verb, “will be launched,”
and the four answer choices mainly make changes to the verb tense. We are given options for
past tense (“was launched” and “were launched”), present tense (“is launched”), and future
tense (“will be launched”).
The timeline of the sentence makes clear that this satellite launch happened in the past (in
“1958”), so we can remove all present (Choice D) and future (Choice A) options.
Between the remaining options, Choice B and C are both past tense (which we want), but
Choice C commits a Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement error (read Lesson 5 for more
information: the antecedent “satellite” must be replaced by the singular pronoun “it,” not the
plural pronoun “they”).
That leaves only Choice B as the correct answer, because it matches the correct Verb Tense
(the past tense) with a singular pronoun.
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Verb Tense & Form Quick Reference
Verb Tense primarily has to do with the order of events in a sentence or paragraph’s
timeline.
When determining the timeline, context matters - find clues to the time periods and order
of events within the sentence or paragraph.
Parallelism (see Lesson 10) often has an influence on the correct choice of Verb Tense &
Form. Be sure to study Parallelism carefully, and keep an eye out for it whenever you think
you’re looking at a Verb Tense and Form question.
Now let’s look at one more example from the Pretest:
Plymouth was once a brand of automobiles produced in the United States,
but it was dissolved and absorbed into other brands in 2001; however,
some investors would like to revive the marque, leaving the future of the
Plymouth name in question.
(A) [NO CHANGE]
(B) will revive
(C) revived
(D) reviving
Notice that the underlined portion and our possible answer choices are playing with the tenses
and forms of the verb “revive.” Take context clues from the rest of the sentence: the brand was
dissolved in 2001 (in the past), but some investors might revive the brand (a future possibility).
That eliminates Choice C, which is a past tense verb.
Choice D causes a Sentence Structure mistake (see Lesson 9) by removing the main verb
“would like” and not replacing with another main verb, thus destroying the Independent Clause
that must follow the semicolon (also see Lesson 8 on Punctuation Marks).
Between Choice A and B, these are both future tense forms. However, Choice B implies that
this brand’s revival is a sure thing (“will revive”), which conflicts with the meaning of the “future
being in question” - while Choice A correctly leaves open the possibility of revival, without
guaranteeing it (“would like to revive”). Choice A nails the correct verb tense and form, which
makes it the right answer.
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