ESL003: Upper-Intermediate English as a Second Language

After reviewing the role of main, or lexical, verbs in sentences and understanding the importance of tense consistency, let's look at improving sentence clarity by avoiding unnecessary tense shifts in our sentences.

In the previous lesson, we learned that all main verbs in a sentence or paragraph must use the same tense. However, one of the most common mistakes in writing is a lack of tense consistency.

Tense shift mistakes often occur when writers change their minds halfway through writing the sentence or when they come back and make changes but only end up changing half the sentence. It is very important to maintain a consistent tense, not just in a sentence but across paragraphs and pages. Decide if something happened, is happening, or will happen, and then stick with that choice!

Unnecessary Tense Shifts

Let's see how that happens. Writers often start a sentence in one tense but ended up in another. Look back at that sentence. Do you see the error? The first verb, "start", is in the present tense, but "ended" is in the past tense. The correct version of the sentence would be, "Writers often start a sentence in one tense but end up in another".

Read through the following paragraph. Can you spot any errors in tense?

If you want to pick up a new outdoor activity, hiking is a great option to consider. It's a sport that is suited for a beginner or an expert – it just depended on the difficulty of the hikes you choose. However, even the earliest beginners can complete difficult hikes if they pace themselves and were physically fit.

Not only is hiking an easy activity to pick up, it also will have some great payoffs. As you walked through canyons and climbed up mountains, you can see things that you wouldn't otherwise. The views are breathtaking, and you will get a great opportunity to meditate on the world and your role in it. The summit of a mountain is unlike any other place in the world.

What errors did you spot? Let's take another look at this passage.

This time, the tense-shifted verbs have been bolded, and the phrases they belong to have been underlined:

As we mentioned earlier, you want to make sure your whole passage is consistent in its tense. You may have noticed that most of the verbs in this passage are in present tense  –  this is especially apparent if you ignore those verbs that have been bolded. Now that we've established that this passage should be in the present tense, let's address each of the underlined segments:

• It's a sport that is suited for a beginner or an expert  –  it just depended on the difficulty hikes you choose.
  • depended should be the same tense as is: it just depends on the difficulty
• if they pace themselves and were physically fit.
  • were should be the same tense as pace: if they pace themselves and are physically fit.
• Not only is hiking an easy activity to pick up, it also will have some great payoffs.
  • will have should be the same tense as is: it also has some great payoffs
• As you walked through canyons and climbed up mountains
  • walked and climbed are both past tense, but this doesn't match the tense of the passage as a whole. They should both be changed to present tense: As you walk through canyons and climb up mountains.
• The views are breathtaking, and you will get a great opportunity to meditate on the world and your role in it.
  • will get should be the same tense as are: you get a great opportunity

Here's the corrected passage as a whole; all edited verbs have been bolded:

This video gives an explanation and example of tense consistency and unnecessary tense shifts.

Tips for Avoiding Unnecessary Tense Shifts

Establish a primary tense for the main discourse and use shifts to other tenses to indicate changes in the time frame.

Keep in mind the following guidelines to know what verb tense to use:

• Use the past action to describe events from the past or an author's ideas as historical information.
• Use the present tense to describe facts and habitual actions.
• Use the present tense to describe your ideas, the ideas from an outside source, and the action in a literary work or film.
• The past perfect tense with had is used to describe an action that took place before another action in the past: Mario had already left for the party when his girlfriend called.
• Use progressive tenses to describe an ongoing action: Mr. Sanders was sleeping in his office when the manager knocked on the door.
• Now that we know how to avoid unnecessary tense shifts when writing, let's put our knowledge into practice.

Source: Lumen Learning,
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Source: Hampton Grammar & Writing Skills, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xKg1GSV2Go
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Source: Volunteer State Community College, https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/97940/overview?section=35
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.