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

Past Perfect Present Perfect Future 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
has, have been talking
progressive
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?
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?
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?
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
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]
 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)