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
Review B
What are the verb tenses?
Why do verbs have so many different forms?
Verbs take different forms to show all the
possibilities for when something can happen.
She will draw.
She is drawing.
She has drawn.
What are the verb tenses?
The tense of a verb indicates the time of the
action or state of being expressed by the verb.
There are six tenses of verbs. Each tense has its
own use.
Present Paul lives in Boston.
Present perfect
Past
He has lived in several cities.
Paul once lived in Utah.
Past perfect
He had lived in Georgia before that.
Future Paul will live in Boston for a long time.
Future perfect He will have lived there four years.
What are the verb tenses?
Present and present perfect
The present tense expresses an action
occurring or a state of being that is existing now,
at the present time.
Mom drinks the orange juice.
Present
Now
What are the verb tenses?
Present and present perfect
The present perfect tense
• expresses an action that occurred or a state of
being that existed at an indefinite time in the past
• is usually formed with have or has plus the
past participle
Saul has drunk his juice already.
We don’t know when Saul drank it.
Present
Now
Present perfect
What are the verb tenses?
Past and past perfect
The past tense expresses an action or a state of
being that started and ended in the past.
The scouts hiked all morning.
Past
Present
Past
Now
Present perfect
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
• is usually formed with had plus the past participle
The scouts had hiked five miles before they
stopped for lunch.
Past
Present
Past
Now
Past perfect
Present perfect
What are the verb tenses?
Future and future perfect
The future tense
• expresses an action that will occur or a state of being
that will exist
• is usually formed with will or shall plus the base form
The class will tour the Indian ruins.
Present
Future
Now
Future
Present perfect
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 with will have or shall have plus the
past participle
By the end of the trip, the class will have toured
three ruins.
Present
Future
Now
Future
Present Perfect
Future Perfect
What are the verb tenses?
On Your Own
Change the tense of the boldface verb in each sentence to
the tense in parentheses.
1. Miguel makes the photo larger. (Change to past.)
2. The picnic took place on Sunday. (Change to future.)
3. The boys ran three miles in one hour. (Change to past
perfect.)
4. By then, Aunt Nell had arrived. (Change to future
perfect.)
5. Cynthia had played the violin beautifully. (Change to
present.)
[End of Section]
Consistency of tense
Do not change from one tense to another without
a good reason.
To describe events that occur in the same time
period, use verbs in the same tense.
past tense
past tense
When we went to the movies, we bought popcorn.
present tense
present tense
When we go to the movies, we buy popcorn.
Consistency of tense
For events that occur in different time periods,
use verbs of different tenses to show the order of
events.
present tense
past tense
Lisa plays basketball now, but last year she was
on the volleyball team.
Lisa’s basketball
playing is occurring in
the present. Her
volleyball playing
happened in the past.
Consistency of tense
On Your Own
Read the paragraph and decide whether to rewrite it in the
present or past tense. Then, change verb forms to make the
tenses consistent.
(1) Lightning struck our house, and I run straight for
cover. (2) “Oh, no!” I exclaim. (3) The electricity was out! (4)
My parents get out the flashlights, and we played a game.
(5) The stove and microwave are not working, so we have a
cold supper in the living room. (6) In the morning,
we are all happy. (7) The sun shone and our electricity is
back on.
[End of Section]
Review A
Change the tense of each boldface verb to the tense
given in parentheses.
1. The children wear their seatbelts. (past perfect)
2. The bell in the clock tower rang. (present)
3. My family will move to Seattle. (present perfect)
4. With confidence, Sara begins the quiz. (past)
5. We sent the packages by airmail. (future)
Review B
Read the paragraph and decide whether to rewrite it in
the present or past tense. Then, change verb forms to
make the tenses consistent.
(1) I travel to Denver and visited my grandparents.
(2) Grandpa gave me a big hug when I get off the
train. (3) Then we all go to their house for dinner. (4)
The very next morning Grandma takes me downtown
and we shopped for books and shoes. (5) Then she and
I meet up with Grandpa and went to the museum.
[End of Section]
The End