Understanding verb tense
What are the verb tenses?
Present and present perfect
Past and past perfect
Future and future perfect
Consistency of tense
Review A
What are the verb tenses?
Verbs do a lot of work in sentences. They show
actions and states of being. They even take
different forms to show time.
flies
flew will fly
What are the verb tenses?
The tense of a verb indicates the time of the
action or state of being expressed by the verb.
Perfect tenses indicate that something happened
or existed before a specific point in time.
Past Present Future
Past Present Future
Present Future
Past Perfect
Perfect Perfect
Gwen plays guitar in a jazz band.
Gwen played last year as well.
Gwen will play in a concert tomorrow.
She has played in the band for three years.
She had played violin before then.
She will have played in ten concerts by April.
What are the verb tenses?
The tenses of verbs are formed from the four
principal parts of verbs.
Base Form smile choose
Present Participle [is] smil ing [is] choos ing
Past smile d cho se
Past Participle [have] smile d [have] cho sen
What are the verb tenses?
Each tense has a progressive form, which is
used to express continuing action or state of
being.
Present progressive am, are, is talking
Past progressive was, were talking
Future progressive will (shall) be talking
Present perfect progressive has, have been talking
Past perfect progressive had been talking
Future perfect progressive will (shall) have been talking
What are the verb tenses?
Present and present perfect
The present tense expresses an action or a
state of being that is occurring now, at the
present time.
Today we honor our veterans.
Polly is marching in the parade.
(Progressive form)
What are the verb tenses?
Present and present perfect
The present tense is also used in these ways:
to show a customary or We recycle our aluminum
habitual action or state of cans.
being
to express a general truth The sun rises in the east.
to make historical events In 1927, Charles Lindbergh
seem current (historical flies nonstop across the
present) Atlantic.
to discuss a literary work In Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck
(literary present) shows us the extremes of life
during the depression.
to express future time We travel to Utah next month.
What are the verb tenses?
Present and present perfect
The present perfect tense
• expresses an action or a state of being that
occurred at an indefinite time in the past
• is usually formed using the helping verb have or
has plus the past participle
Mike has been in several parades.
He has played the drum in all of them.
What are the verb tenses?
A helping verb (also called an auxiliary verb) is
used with a main verb to create a verb phrase.
Helping Main
verb verb
II was reading
reading aaanovel
was reading bookby
novel bySandra
by SandraCisneros.
Sandra Cisneros.
Cisneros.
Verb phrase
Some commonly used helping verbs include is,
are, has, had, did, does, can, could, should, and
will.
What are the verb tenses?
Present and present perfect
The present perfect tense is also used to
express an action or state of being that began in
the past and continues into the present. In this
case, perfect means complete.
Mr. Lee has taught music at our
school since 2004.
(Progressive form)
Yoko has been taking flute lessons for
six years.
What are the verb tenses?
Past and past perfect
The past tense expresses an action or a state of
being that occurred in the past but did not
continue into the present.
The two friends shared the large swing.
They were swinging for a long time.
(Progressive form)
What are the verb tenses?
Past and past perfect
The past perfect tense
• expresses an action or a state of being that
ended before another past action or state of
being occurred
• is usually formed using had plus the past
participle
After Maria had gone home, Kim was bored.
She asked her dad about the time that he
had been a lifeguard at the beach.
What are the verb tenses?
Future and future perfect
The future tense
• expresses an action or a state of being that will
occur
• is usually formed using will or shall plus the base
form
My family will ride the train to Chicago.
We will be arriving at five o’clock.
(Progressive form)
What are the verb tenses?
We can also express future
action in other ways.
We are going to make our
own costumes.
They are about to begin
the awards ceremony.
I have a test tomorrow.
What are the verb tenses?
Future and future perfect
The future perfect tense
• expresses an action or a state of being that will
end before another future action or state of
being
• is usually formed using will have or shall have
plus the past participle
By the time you receive this letter, she will have
returned home.
After this trip, he will have been to Chicago
three times.
What are the verb tenses?
Identify the tense of each verb in bold. Be
prepared to explain the difference in meaning
between the sentences in each pair.
1. Lia will begin the yard work later.
Lia will have begun the yard work by noon.
2. Jamie lived there for three years.
Jamie has been living there for three years.
3. Some of the girls were practicing karate.
Some of the girls have practiced karate.
What are the verb tenses?
Identify the tense of each verb in bold. Be
prepared to explain the difference in meaning
between the sentences in each pair.
1. Lia will begin the yard work later.
Lia will have begun the yard work before
eating lunch.
future tense future perfect tense
Expresses an action Expresses an action
(beginning the yard work) (beginning the yard work)
that will occur in the future that will be completed before
(later). some future action takes
place (lunch).
What are the verb tenses?
Identify the tense of each verb in bold. Be
prepared to explain the difference in meaning
between the sentences in each pair.
2. Jamie lived there for three years.
Jamie has been living there for three years.
past tense present perfect progressive
The action (lived) occurred The action (has been living)
in the past and did not was occurring in the past and
continue into the present. continues into the present.
What are the verb tenses?
Identify the tense of each verb in bold. Be
prepared to explain the difference in meaning
between the sentences in each pair.
3. Some of the girls were practicing karate.
Some of the girls have practiced karate.
past progressive present perfect tense
The action (practicing) was The action (practiced)
occurring in the past and did occurred in the past and
not continue into the continues into the present.
present.
What are the verb tenses?
On Your Own
Change the tense of the verb in each sentence, as indicated
in parentheses.
1. I do not miss the bus. (Change to future.)
2. Were they at the party? (Change to past perfect.)
3. By then, Keith had returned. (Change to future perfect.)
4. The team will practice for an hour with no break. (Change
to future perfect progressive.)
5. My sister dances well. (Change to past.)
[End of Section]
Consistency of tense
Do not change needlessly from one tense to
another.
To describe events that occur at the same time,
use verbs in the same tense.
past tense past tense
Sara peeked over the fence and saw a cornfield.
present tense present tense
Sara peeks over the fence and sees a cornfield.
Consistency of tense
For events that occur at different times, use
verbs of different tenses to show the sequence of
events.
past tense past perfect tense
The pitcher wished that he had practiced more
before the game.
The action of wishing happened after the action of
practicing was complete.
Consistency of tense
For events that occur at different times, use
verbs of different tenses to show the sequence of
events.
past tense present tense
Yesterday, Nina told us that her brother works
every week at the senior center.
The action of telling occurred at a specific time in the
past. The action of working occurs now.
Consistency of tense
Change each sentence to make the verb tense
consistent. Be prepared to explain your answers. Hint:
One sentence is already correct (C).
1. Kira caught the ball and throws it to first
base.
2. Lily lives next door now but will soon move to
another town.
3. My cousin has broken his leg, so I helped him
get around.
Consistency of tense
Change each sentence to make the verb tense
consistent. Be prepared to explain your answers. Hint:
One sentence is already correct (C).
Possible Answer
1. Kira caught the ball and threw it to first
base.
The actions occur at the same time, so the verbs
should both be in the same tense.
Consistency of tense
Change each sentence to make the verb tense
consistent. Be prepared to explain your answers. Hint:
One sentence is already correct (C).
2. Lily lives next door now but will soon move to C
another town.
The action of living takes place now, but the
action of moving will happen later.
Consistency of tense
Change each sentence to make the verb tense
consistent. Be prepared to explain your answers. Hint:
One sentence is already correct (C).
Possible Answer
3. My cousin had broken his leg, so I helped
him get around.
The action of breaking the leg happened before
the action of helping.
Consistency of tense
On Your Own
Proofread the paragraph for unnecessary changes of verb
tense. Change the verbs to make the tenses consistent.
(1) I was in my room Saturday morning, planning to
study for two hours. (2) To my surprise, Nancy Chang drops
by. (3) She dashed into the house, runs up the stairs, and
calls my name. (4) What she wanted was a fishing
companion. (5) As I get my fishing gear together, I was so
happy. (6) On our way to the lake, we notice some dark
clouds. (7) We wished we checked the weather first.
[End of Section]
Consistency of tense
Possible Answers
(1) I was in my room Saturday morning, planning to
study for two hours. (2) To my surprise, Nancy Chang
dropped ran up the
drops by. (3) She dashed into the house, runs
stairs, and called
calls my name. (4) What she wanted was a
got my fishing gear together, I
fishing companion. (5) As I get
was so happy. (6) On our way to the lake, we noticed
notice some
dark clouds. (7) We wished wehad
checked the weather first.
Review A
Change the tense of each boldface verb to the tense
indicated in parentheses.
1. The otter swam to the edge of the pond. (present
perfect)
2. Our class will read Shakespeare’s Macbeth. (future
progressive)
3. The three sisters regularly meet for lunch. (past)
4. Each student chooses a lab partner. (past perfect)
5. Wasps were entering the house through the torn
screen. (present)
Review A
Change the tense of each boldface verb to the tense
indicated in parentheses.
1. The otter has swum to the edge of the pond. (present
perfect)
2. Our class will be reading Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
(future progressive)
3. The three sisters regularly met for lunch. (past)
4. Each student has chosen a lab partner. (past perfect)
5. Wasps enter the house through the torn screen.
(present)
