1. 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

2. 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.

3. 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
He has lived in several cities.
Past
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.

4. 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

5. 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

6. What are the verb tenses? Present and present perfect
The present perfect tense can also express an action or state of being that began in the past and continues into the present.
Grammar Guy Says...
Joshua has played basketball all year.
The action of playing basketball began in the past and is still going on today.

7. 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

8. 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
Present perfect
Past perfect

9. 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
Future
Now
Present perfect

10. 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
Future
Now
Present Perfect
Future Perfect

11. What are the verb tenses?
Identify the incorrect verb form in each of the following sentences. Then, write the correct form of the verb.
1. Yesterday I done more homework than today.
2. My brother will traded some of his baseball cards with his friends.
3. Earlier the dog just wag his tail to greet me.

12. What are the verb tenses?
Identify the incorrect verb form in each of the following sentences. Then, write the correct form of the verb.
1. Yesterday I did more homework than today.
The word yesterday tells us the sentence is in the past tense. The past tense of do is did.

13. What are the verb tenses?
Identify the incorrect verb form in each of the following sentences. Then, write the correct form of the verb.
2. My brother will trade some of his baseball cards with his friends.
The word will tells us the sentence is in the future tense. The future tense of trade is will trade.

14. What are the verb tenses?
Identify the incorrect verb form in each of the following sentences. Then, write the correct form of the verb.
3. Earlier the dog just wagged his tail to greet me.
The sentence is in the past tense. The correct past tense form is wagged.

15. 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]

16. What are the verb tenses?
Answers
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.)
1. Miguel made the photo larger.
2. The picnic will take place on Sunday.
3. The boys had run three miles in one hour.
4. By then, Aunt Nell will have arrived.
5. Cynthia plays the violin beautifully.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. Consistency of tense
Change each sentence to make the verb tense consistent. Be prepared to explain your answers.
1. Each morning they got up early and run.
2. The sun rises and the sky turned pink.
3. Heidi coughed when a bug flies into her mouth.
4. I had washed the dishes, but they are still wet.

20. Consistency of tense
Change each sentence to make the verb tense consistent. Be prepared to explain your answers.
Possible Answer
1. Each morning they get up early and run.
The actions occur at the same time, so the verbs should be in the same tense. (Here they are both in the present tense.)

21. Consistency of tense
Change each sentence to make the verb tense consistent. Be prepared to explain your answers.
Possible Answer
2. The sun rose and the sky turned pink.
The actions occur at the same time, so the verbs should be in the same tense. (Here they are both in the past tense.)

22. Consistency of tense
Change each sentence to make the verb tense consistent. Be prepared to explain your answers.
Possible Answer
3. Heidi coughed when a bug flew into her mouth.
The actions occur at the same time, so the verbs should be in the same tense. (Here they are both in the past tense.)

23. Consistency of tense
Change each sentence to make the verb tense consistent. Be prepared to explain your answers.
Possible Answer
4. I had washed the dishes, but they were still wet.
The action of washing the dishes occurred before the state of being wet. Two different tenses, past perfect and past, are used to show the order.

24. 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]

25. Consistency of tense Possible Answer
(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.
ran
exclaimed
got
were
had
were
was

26. 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)

27. Review A
Change the tense of each boldface verb to the tense given in parentheses.
1. The children had worn their seatbelts. (past perfect)
2. The bell in the clock tower rings. (present)
3. My family has moved to Seattle. (present perfect)
4. With confidence, Sara began the quiz. (past)
5. We will send the packages by airmail. (future)

28. 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.
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29. 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. (Possible answer)
traveled
(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.
got
went
took
met

30. The End