Chapter 3: Verb Tense and Usage

Tense refers to the different forms that verbs assume, to indicate the time zone of an action. Although there are many tenses in English (past, present, future, past perfect, present perfect, future perfect, and the continuous form of each of those six), only a few contexts typically cause problems.

Present

It’s easy to choose present tense when the action is physically happening at the moment (Natasha is waltzing down the hallway) or when it occurs often (Natasha waltzes down the hallway every morning). It’s not so easy to choose present tense when you’re discussing a text you finished reading, a film you saw, or a conversation you had. Take a look at the following sentences:

The article indicated that Natasha has been dancing since she was born.

Natasha showed me a videotape that proved the article right.

Natasha said that she still loved to dance.

In the first sentence, indicated should be indicates. Whenever the subject is any kind of text—article, book, chapter, memo, letter, report, e-mail, passage, paragraph, sentence, phrase—the verb should be present tense, since the text still exists. Even though you read it in the past, it is still conveying the information you’re referring to.

 

In the second sentence, proved should be proves. Even though Natasha showed me a videotape in the past, that tape is still proving the article right.

 

In the third sentence, loved should be loves. What Natasha said, in the past, is that she still loves to dance, in the present. You need to separate the time zone in which the person spoke from the time zone that the person spoke about. The two are not always the same.

 

Here are the previous sample sentences in correct form:

The article indicates that Natasha has been dancing since she was born.

Natasha showed me a videotape that proves the article right.

Natasha said that she still loves to dance.

Present Perfect

This tense involves have or has as a helping verb, plus a past participle (asked, danced). It represents action that began in the past, continued over time, and extends to the present moment. For example,

I have often asked Natasha how old she is.

She has danced around the question more than once.

Have asked and has danced are correct because those verbs represent past action that happened intermittently between a past moment and the present moment.

 

The problem with present perfect is not that people don’t use it when they should; it’s that people use it when they shouldn’t. Specifically, they use it when they should be using simple past tense, to refer to a completed past action that happened once. Here are some examples of the typical mistake:

I have received Natasha’s most recent letter, in which she has described the proper way to do the two-step. I have decided to read it when I have more energy.

Three verbs in that paragraph (have received, has described, and have decided) should be simple past tense (received, described, and decided) because they refer to completed past actions that happened once.

Past Perfect

This tense involves had as a helping verb, followed by a past participle (asked, danced). It represents a past action that happened earlier than a nearby past action. In other words, when you are writing about something that occurred in the simple past, and you also refer to something that occurred before that point, you need past-perfect tense. The following sentences are correct:

Natasha said that she had applied for a dance scholarship to kindergarten.

She did not receive a scholarship because she had not revealed her true age on the application.

She had claimed that she was five when, in fact, she was thirteen.

Her parents had kept her out of school until she could manage to sit still.

Do all those tenses make sense to you? In the first sentence, had applied is correct because that action happened before said. In the second sentence, had not revealed is correct because that action happened before did not receive. In the third sentence, had claimed is correct because that action took place at the same time as had not revealed (in the previous sentence). And in the fourth sentence, had kept is correct because that action happened before could manage.

 

The problem with past perfect is that people don’t use it when they should. Instead, they express chronological past actions in the same tense, as if they had all happened at the same time. Here are the four sample sentences again, with all verbs in simple past tense:

Natasha said that she applied for a dance scholarship to kindergarten.

She did not receive a scholarship because she did not reveal her true age on the application.

She claimed that she was five when, in fact, she was thirteen.

Her parents kept her out of school until she could manage to sit still.

If those sentences sound fine to you, that’s because you are used to hearing the error. “If the mistake sounds right,” you may ask, “why do I need to avoid it?” Because there are times when the error can lead to misunderstanding. For example,

Natasha said that she felt cheated.

That sentence means that Natasha felt cheated at the same moment that she said it. If she means that she felt cheated when she was in kindergarten, then the second verb should be past perfect:

Natasha said that she had felt cheated.

Confusing Verbs

In this category are some irregular verbs, some regular verbs with irregular requirements, and some verbs that people just don’t spell right.

Troublesome irregular verbs

A verb is called regular when it takes ed on the end to become past tense or a past participle. For example,

Yesterday Natasha beamed as she was cheered by the crowd.

She was thrilled because she had finally graduated from elementary school.

A verb is called irregular when it takes an ending other than ed to become past tense or a past participle. People handle most irregular verbs correctly without batting an eyelid. For example, they automatically turn think into thought and sink into sank. But when it comes to lie and lay, people rarely get it right.

 

Lie, as in to lie down, is conjugated like this:

lie

lay

lain

In other words,

Today Natasha lies on the couch; yesterday she lay on the couch; and before that she had lain on the couch.

Lay, as in to lay an egg, is conjugated like this:

lay

laid

laid

In other words,

Today Natasha lays her dancing shoes to rest; yesterday she laid them to rest; and before that she had laid them to rest.

Besides the different ways in which lie and lay are conjugated, there’s a grammatical difference: lie cannot be followed immediately by any noun or pronoun; lay must be followed immediately by a noun or pronoun. We do not lie something down; we lay something down. We do not lay down (not in present tense, anyway); we lie down.

 

How can you remember this? If you’re referring to putting your own body on a couch or a bed, you need lie, lay, lain. If you’re referring to putting another entity somewhere, you need lay, laid, laid.

 

Thoroughly confused? Lay this book aside and lie down for a while.

 

Another verb that people don’t handle very well is drink. Here’s how it’s conjugated:

drink

drank

drunk

In other words,

Today Natasha drinks tea; yesterday she drank tea; before that she had drunk tea; and, in fact, she has drunk gallons of tea this week.

People tend to avoid using drunk where it belongs. They write, for example, “I have drank a lot of water today.” Perhaps they don’t use drunk because they associate the word with too much alcohol. Drunk refers to alcohol when it shows up after am, is, are, was, were, etc. But after has or have, drunk simply indicates the time zone in which any drinking action took place.

 

Maybe because people avoid drunk, they also shy away from shrunk. They write, for example, “Even before the commercial announcement, the audience had shrank significantly.” That audience had not shrank; it had shrunk.

Regular verbs with irregular requirements

After verbs like request, recommend, suggest, or demand, you must use a noun, gerund, or noun clause (a clause beginning with that). For example,

Natasha requested a diploma from her elementary school.

I recommend giving her that diploma.

Her mother demands that the diploma be issued with honors.

Mistakes tend to happen after recommend, in particular. The error typically looks like this:

I recommend you to apply for your diploma.

That sentence is wrong because the author is not recommending a person; he is recommending an action. So the sentence should look like this:

I recommend applying for your diploma.

or

I recommend that you apply for your diploma.

Don’t think that recommend someone is always wrong. You can recommend someone—for something (a job, a role, an honor, an award); you just can’t recommend someone to do something.

Frequently misspelled verbs

recur	When something occurs again, it recurs (not reoccurs).
lose	When something slips away from you, you lose it (not loose it; loose is the opposite of tight).
ensure	When you want to make sure that something happens, you want to ensure (not insure) that it takes place.
assure	When you want to comfort people, you assure them that everything will be all right.
insure	When you want to ensure that you’ll be reimbursed for lost property (and assure yourself that you’ll be able to buy it again), you insure your belongings. Insure relates to insurance.
affect	When you’re writing about how something will influence the situation, you’re referring to how it will affect the situation (not effect; effect is a noun meaning “consequence” or “outcome”).
let’s	If you mean to say “let us” (as in let us be honest), type let’s, not lets. Let’s is a contraction for let us. Lets is a verb (meaning “allows/permits”) that needs a subject to the left of it, as in Natasha lets the dog in when she needs a dancing partner.
accommodate	This word contains two c’s and two m’s (not one m).

Here are four more verbs that are often misrepresented:

imply	When your words contain an underlying message, you are implying something.
infer	When you detect an underlying message in someone else’s words, you are inferring something.
lend	When you allow someone to borrow something, you lend it (not loan it; loan is a noun that refers to what you lent).
try to	When you attempt to do something, you try to do it (not try and do it).

Verbs are the very hearts of your sentences, pumping life into an otherwise inert body of people, places, things, descriptions, and glue. Because verbs are so critical to the vitality of your writing, you need to select them with care and monitor them closely.

 

Monitor them for what?

• As you learned from the previous chapter, verbs must agree with their subjects (in terms of number) and make sense with the words around them.
• As you learned from this chapter, verbs must reflect the appropriate time zone, standard usage, and dictionary spelling.

Is that all? Almost. The next chapter explains the last issue you need to understand to form all of your verbs correctly.

 

QUIZ ON TENSE AND USAGE

Below is a letter to Natasha from her elementary school. Your job is to edit the letter for tense only. That is, look at all verbs to see whether they are correct in terms of time zone and usage. If the sentence is correct, leave it alone; if it’s not, fix it.

Dear Natasha:

1	We have recently received your request for a diploma from our elementary school. Given the amount of time that has elapsed, we wondered why we didn’t hear from you sooner. In response to your inquiry, we have carefully reviewed your records.
2	Your report cards indicated that while you attended our school, you performed extremely well in math problems involving numbers one through four. You had trouble dealing with numbers five through nine because, as you once told your teacher, no dance step involved counting beyond four.
3	Your performance in English seemed to be satisfactory. Although you read superficially, leaping over much of the text, you were on your toes during exams.
4	P.E. was another story. Lets just say that your behavior was unusual. For example, during softball practice you pirouetted in the outfield, made yourself dizzy, and never caught a ball. Furthermore, you laid down and fanned yourself frequently. When an inning was over, you bowed to the empty bleachers and waited around for a bouquet.
5	It’s fortunate that we didn’t loose your records. Documentation ensures us that you did attend a graduation ceremony. But there was no evidence of any diploma.
6	We have decided to consult with the district superintendent on this matter. If she recommends us to issue you a diploma at this late date, we will gladly do so.

Your old principal

 

ANSWERS TO TENSE AND USAGE QUIZ

• Paragraph l contains three errors. In the first sentence, have received should be received. Received is a completed past action that happened once, calling for simple past tense. In the second sentence, didn’t hear should be hadn’t heard because this action happened before wondered; or wondered should be wonder, which will make sense with didn’t hear. (The question here is whether the school officials wondered in the past or are wondering now.) In the third sentence, have reviewed should be reviewed because the reviewing action is complete. (Even though it happened over time, it doesn’t extend to the present moment.)
• Paragraph 2 contains two errors. In the first sentence, the verb indicated should be indicate. Present tense is in order because the subject of this verb is report cards—written documents that still exist and still indicate something. At the end of the second sentence, the verb involved should be involves because what Natasha told her teacher is still true—that no dance step involves counting beyond four.
• Paragraph 3 contains one error. In the first sentence, seemed should be seems because Natasha’s performance of many years ago presently seems satisfactory to the author of the letter. (If the author were talking about how Natasha’s teachers viewed her performance in the past, then seemed would be correct.)
• Paragraph 4 contains three errors. In the first sentence, was should be is because the story that the author refers to still exists. (The opening sentences of paragraphs 2, 3, and 4 are alike in that each tells what the author presently concludes.) In the second sentence, Lets should be Let’s because the author means “let us.” In the fourth sentence, laid should be lay because the author needs the past tense of lie.
• Paragraph 5 contains three errors. In the first sentence, loose should be lose. In the second sentence, ensures should be assures. In the third sentence, was should be is because the author is talking about evidence that still doesn’t exist.
• Paragraph 6 contains two errors. In the first sentence, have decided should be decided. Decided is a completed past action that happened once, not something that happened over time and extends to the present. In the second sentence, us to issue should be issuing or that we issue (the verb recommends must be followed by a noun, gerund, or noun clause).