ESL003: Upper-Intermediate English as a Second Language

In this part of Unit 1, we look at how we use verb tense to maintain sentence agreement. Consistent verb tense means the same verb tense is used throughout a sentence or a paragraph. As you write and revise, make sure you use the same verb tense consistently and avoid shifting from one tense to another unless there is a good reason for it.

Let's start by first reviewing the role verbs playing sentences. Next, we will look at how maintaining verb tense improves sentence clarity.

Verb Basics

Verbs do two things. First, they are the action of the sentence. They tell the reader what sort of action you, someone, or something, did.

In the above example, the verb "walked" tells the reader what kind of action brought you to the store. We know the person didn't run, skip, or saunter to the store; they walked.

The second thing verbs do is tell the audience when something happened. This is where verb tenses come in. In the same example, "walked" is in the past tense, so we know the event happened in the past.

As we learned in ESL002, there are three main tenses: present, past, and future, but within those three tenses are several more.

Tense Consistency

Consistent verb tense means the same verb tense is used throughout a sentence or a paragraph. As you write and revise, make sure you use the same verb tense consistently and avoid shifting from one tense to another unless there is a good reason for it.

In simple sentences such as these, choosing a verb tense is fairly straightforward. The author decides when to place the event in time and chooses the corresponding verb form.

Although people easily use different verb tenses every day, getting them right in writing can be tricky at times. Writers may accidentally change from past to present tense within a text - or even within the same sentence - for no particular reason. Consider these examples:

In Sentence 1, the verb lost places the action in the past; the present-tense verb find is not consistent with that pattern. The revision in Sentence 2 places all of the action in the same time frame: the past. Because changing the tense for no reason can confuse the audience, be sure to use the same verb tense throughout, whether events happen in the past or they happen in the present.

However, in some cases, clear communication will call for different tenses. Look at the following example:

In the above example, the writer talks about a past desire and then about their present situation. Therefore, whenever the time frame for each action or state is different, a tense shift is appropriate.

The short video below illustrates the idea of tense consistency in writing.

Guidelines

DO NOT SHIFT FROM ONE TENSE TO ANOTHER IF THE TIME FRAME OF THE ACTIONS IS THE SAME:

• The Spanish teacher explains the grammatical structures to the students who were confused. (incorrect)
• The Spanish teacher explains the grammatical structures to the students who are confused. (correct)

The sentence expresses habitual actions, so both need to be in the present tense.

SHIFT TENSES TO INDICATE A CHANGE IN THE TIME FRAME IN THE ACTIONS:

• The children love their grandparents, and they visit them last weekend. (incorrect)
• The children love their grandparents, and they visited them last weekend. (correct)

The first action (to love) is habitual, but the second action (to visit) is a completed action that occurred in the past.

Now that we remember the role of main, or lexical, verbs in sentences and know the importance of maintaining tense consistency, let's look at improving sentence clarity by avoiding unnecessary tense shifts in our sentences.

Source: Rebekah Bennetch, Corey Owen, and Zachary Keesey, https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Communication/Introduction_to_Communication/Effective_Professional_Communication%3A_A_Rhetorical_Approach/03%3A_Technical_Writing_Essentials/03.05%3A_Chapter_12%3A_Verb_Tense
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Source: Rebekah Bennetch, Corey Owen, and Zachary Keesey, https://openpress.usask.ca/rcm200/chapter/verb-tense/#chapter-372-section-2
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Source: OpenStax, https://www.fairshake.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/WritingGuide-WEB.pdf
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.

Source: Michael Ullyot, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-21GCnGL68w
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.