Verb Tenses

The “Do’s” and “Don’t’s” with Shifts in Verb Tense

Ways to Use Tense

  Tenses are useful tools to a successful writer. They allow varying sentence structures.

Past Tense

 Past Tense: We skated.

 Past Perfect: We had skated before you arrived.

 Past Progressive: We were skating when you arrived.

Present Tense

 Present Tense: We skate.

 Present Perfect: We have been skating all day.

 Present Progressive: We are skating right now.

Future Tense

 Future Tense: We will skate tomorrow afternoon.

 Future Perfect: We will have skated for an hour before our parents arrive.

 Future Progressive: We will be skating all day next Saturday.

Assignments Involving Tense

   Assignments sometimes involve specific tenses.

Staying within that tense is important.

Try to vary sentence structure without going outside the bounds of the tense assigned for the topic.

Example No. 1

   Wrong- The soldiers were forced to march all the way to Berlin. By this time, they have marched to the point of exhaustion.

Right- The soldiers were forced to march all the way to Berlin. By this time, they had marched to the point of exhaustion.

Or- The soldiers were forced to march all the way to Berlin, pushing them to the point of exhaustion.

Example No. 2

Using them to your advantage In one year they will be going to college. After two years they will have chosen their major and will be taking a more specific curriculum.