{"id":50,"date":"2022-05-20T21:09:03","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T21:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/chapter\/verb-tense-consistency\/"},"modified":"2022-05-20T21:09:03","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T21:09:03","slug":"verb-tense-consistency","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/chapter\/verb-tense-consistency\/","title":{"raw":"Verb Tense Consistency","rendered":"Verb Tense Consistency"},"content":{"raw":"\nOne of the most common mistakes in writing is a lack of tense consistency. Writers often start a sentence in one tense but ended up in another. Look back at that sentence. Do you see the error? The first verb&nbsp;<em>start<\/em> is in the present tense, but&nbsp;<em>ended<\/em> is in the past tense. The correct version of the sentence would be \"Writers often start a sentence in one tense but end up in another.\"\n\nThese mistakes often occur when writers&nbsp;change their&nbsp;minds halfway through writing the sentence, or when they&nbsp;come back and make changes but only end up changing&nbsp;half the sentence. It is very important to maintain a consistent tense, not just in a sentence but across paragraphs and pages.&nbsp;Decide if&nbsp;something happened, is happening, or will happen and then stick with that choice.\n\nRead through the following paragraphs. Can you spot the errors in tense?\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><img class=\"alignright wp-image-2303\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/453\/2016\/08\/08175004\/hiker-at-the-mountain-top-e1466524403874-1024x740.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain peaks and a hiker with raised hands in triumph.\" width=\"400\" height=\"289\">If you want to&nbsp;pick up a new outdoor activity, hiking is a great option to consider.&nbsp;It's a sport that is&nbsp;suited for a beginner or an expert\u2014it just&nbsp;depended on the difficulty hikes you choose. However,&nbsp;even the earliest beginners can complete&nbsp;difficult hikes&nbsp;if they pace themselves and were&nbsp;physically fit.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Not only is hiking&nbsp;an easy activity to&nbsp;pick up, it also will have&nbsp;some great payoffs. As you walked through canyons and climbed up mountains, you can&nbsp;see things that you wouldn't otherwise. The views are breathtaking, and you will get a great opportunity to meditate on the world and your role&nbsp;in it. The summit&nbsp;of a mountain is unlike any other place in the world.<\/p>\nWhat errors did you spot?&nbsp;Let's take another look at this passage. This time, the tense-shifted&nbsp;verbs have been bolded, and&nbsp;the phrases they belong to have been underlined:\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">If you want to&nbsp;pick up a new outdoor activity, hiking is a great option to consider.&nbsp;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">It's a sport that is&nbsp;suited for a beginner or an expert\u2014it just&nbsp;<strong>depended<\/strong> on the difficulty hikes you choose.<\/span> However,&nbsp;even the earliest beginners can complete&nbsp;difficult hikes&nbsp;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">if they pace themselves and <strong>were<\/strong>&nbsp;physically fit<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Not only is hiking&nbsp;an easy activity to&nbsp;pick up, it also <strong>will have<\/strong>&nbsp;some great payoffs<\/span>. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">As you <strong>walked<\/strong> through canyons and <strong>climbed<\/strong> up mountains<\/span>, you can&nbsp;see things that you wouldn't otherwise. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The views are breathtaking, and you <strong>will get<\/strong> a great opportunity to meditate on the world and your role&nbsp;in it<\/span>. The summit&nbsp;of a mountain is unlike any other place in the world.<\/p>\nAs we mentioned earlier, you want to make sure your whole passage is consistent in its tense. You may have noticed that the most of the verbs in this passage&nbsp;are in present tense\u2014this is especially apparent if you ignore those verbs that have been bolded. Now that we've established that this passage should be&nbsp;in the present tense,&nbsp;let's address each of the underlined&nbsp;segments:\n<ul>\n \t<li>It's a sport that is&nbsp;suited for a beginner or an expert\u2014it just&nbsp;<strong>depended<\/strong> on the difficulty hikes you choose.\n<ul>\n \t<li><em>depended<\/em> should be the same tense as&nbsp;<em>is<\/em>; it just <strong>depends<\/strong> on the difficulty<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n \t<li>if they pace themselves and <strong>were<\/strong>&nbsp;physically fit.\n<ul>\n \t<li><em>were&nbsp;<\/em>should be the same tense as&nbsp;<em>pace<\/em>; if they pace themselves&nbsp;and <strong>are<\/strong> physically fit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n \t<li>Not only is hiking&nbsp;an easy activity to&nbsp;pick up, it also <strong>will have<\/strong>&nbsp;some great payoffs.\n<ul>\n \t<li><em>will have<\/em> should be the same tense as&nbsp;<em>is<\/em>;&nbsp;it also <strong>has<\/strong> some great pay offs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n \t<li>As you <strong>walked<\/strong> through canyons and <strong>climbed<\/strong> up mountains\n<ul>\n \t<li><em>walked<\/em> and&nbsp;<em>climbed<\/em> are both past tense, but this doesn't match the tense of the passage as a whole. They should both be changed to present tense: As you&nbsp;<strong>walk<\/strong> through canyons and&nbsp;<strong>climb<\/strong> up mountains.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n \t<li>&nbsp;The views are breathtaking, and you <strong>will get<\/strong> a great opportunity to meditate on the world and your role&nbsp;in it.\n<ul>\n \t<li><em>will get<\/em> should be the same&nbsp;tense as&nbsp;<em>are<\/em>; you <strong>get<\/strong> a great opportunity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nHere's the corrected passage as a whole; all edited verbs have been bolded:\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">If you want to pick up a new outdoor activity, hiking is a great option to consider.&nbsp;It's a sport that can be suited for a beginner or an expert\u2014it just <strong>depends<\/strong> on the difficulty hikes you choose. However,&nbsp;even the earliest beginners can complete&nbsp;difficult hikes&nbsp;if they pace themselves and <strong>are<\/strong> physically fit.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Not only is hiking&nbsp;an easy activity to&nbsp;pick up, it also&nbsp;<strong>has<\/strong> some great payoffs. As you <strong>walk<\/strong> through canyons and <strong>climb<\/strong> up mountains, you can&nbsp;see things that you wouldn't otherwise. The views are breathtaking, and you <strong>get<\/strong> a great opportunity to meditate on the world and your role&nbsp;in it. The summit&nbsp;of a mountain is unlike any other place in the world.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\n<h3>Practice<\/h3>\nRead the following sentences and identify any errors in verb tense. Type your corrections in the text frame below:\n<ol>\n \t<li>Whenever Maudeline goes to the grocery store, she&nbsp;had made&nbsp;a list and stick to it.<\/li>\n \t<li>This experiment turned out to be much more complicated than Felipe thought it would be. It ended up being&nbsp;a procedure that was seventeen steps long, instead of the original eight that he had planned.<\/li>\n \t<li>I applied to some of the most prestigious medical schools. I hope the essays I write get me in!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n[practice-area rows=\"4\"][\/practice-area]\n[reveal-answer q=\"615298\"]Show Answer[\/reveal-answer]\n[hidden-answer a=\"615298\"]\n<ol>\n \t<li><em>had made<\/em>&nbsp;and <em>stick<\/em>&nbsp;do not match the present tense that was set up by <em>goes<\/em>. The sentence should read, \"Whenever Maudeline goes to the store, she&nbsp;<strong>makes<\/strong> a list and <strong>sticks<\/strong> to it.\"<\/li>\n \t<li>This sentence is correct.<\/li>\n \t<li><em>applied<\/em> and&nbsp;<em>write<\/em> do not match tense. If you've already applied, hopefully you've already written your essays as well! The&nbsp;sentences should read, \"I applied to some of the most prestigious medical schools. I hope the essays I <strong>wrote<\/strong> get me in!\"<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n[\/hidden-answer]\n\n<\/div>\n","rendered":"<p>One of the most common mistakes in writing is a lack of tense consistency. Writers often start a sentence in one tense but ended up in another. Look back at that sentence. Do you see the error? The first verb&nbsp;<em>start<\/em> is in the present tense, but&nbsp;<em>ended<\/em> is in the past tense. The correct version of the sentence would be &#8220;Writers often start a sentence in one tense but end up in another.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>These mistakes often occur when writers&nbsp;change their&nbsp;minds halfway through writing the sentence, or when they&nbsp;come back and make changes but only end up changing&nbsp;half the sentence. It is very important to maintain a consistent tense, not just in a sentence but across paragraphs and pages.&nbsp;Decide if&nbsp;something happened, is happening, or will happen and then stick with that choice.<\/p>\n<p>Read through the following paragraphs. Can you spot the errors in tense?<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-2303\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/453\/2016\/08\/08175004\/hiker-at-the-mountain-top-e1466524403874-1024x740.jpg\" alt=\"Mountain peaks and a hiker with raised hands in triumph.\" width=\"400\" height=\"289\" \/>If you want to&nbsp;pick up a new outdoor activity, hiking is a great option to consider.&nbsp;It&#8217;s a sport that is&nbsp;suited for a beginner or an expert\u2014it just&nbsp;depended on the difficulty hikes you choose. However,&nbsp;even the earliest beginners can complete&nbsp;difficult hikes&nbsp;if they pace themselves and were&nbsp;physically fit.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Not only is hiking&nbsp;an easy activity to&nbsp;pick up, it also will have&nbsp;some great payoffs. As you walked through canyons and climbed up mountains, you can&nbsp;see things that you wouldn&#8217;t otherwise. The views are breathtaking, and you will get a great opportunity to meditate on the world and your role&nbsp;in it. The summit&nbsp;of a mountain is unlike any other place in the world.<\/p>\n<p>What errors did you spot?&nbsp;Let&#8217;s take another look at this passage. This time, the tense-shifted&nbsp;verbs have been bolded, and&nbsp;the phrases they belong to have been underlined:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">If you want to&nbsp;pick up a new outdoor activity, hiking is a great option to consider.&nbsp;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">It&#8217;s a sport that is&nbsp;suited for a beginner or an expert\u2014it just&nbsp;<strong>depended<\/strong> on the difficulty hikes you choose.<\/span> However,&nbsp;even the earliest beginners can complete&nbsp;difficult hikes&nbsp;<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">if they pace themselves and <strong>were<\/strong>&nbsp;physically fit<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Not only is hiking&nbsp;an easy activity to&nbsp;pick up, it also <strong>will have<\/strong>&nbsp;some great payoffs<\/span>. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">As you <strong>walked<\/strong> through canyons and <strong>climbed<\/strong> up mountains<\/span>, you can&nbsp;see things that you wouldn&#8217;t otherwise. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The views are breathtaking, and you <strong>will get<\/strong> a great opportunity to meditate on the world and your role&nbsp;in it<\/span>. The summit&nbsp;of a mountain is unlike any other place in the world.<\/p>\n<p>As we mentioned earlier, you want to make sure your whole passage is consistent in its tense. You may have noticed that the most of the verbs in this passage&nbsp;are in present tense\u2014this is especially apparent if you ignore those verbs that have been bolded. Now that we&#8217;ve established that this passage should be&nbsp;in the present tense,&nbsp;let&#8217;s address each of the underlined&nbsp;segments:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It&#8217;s a sport that is&nbsp;suited for a beginner or an expert\u2014it just&nbsp;<strong>depended<\/strong> on the difficulty hikes you choose.\n<ul>\n<li><em>depended<\/em> should be the same tense as&nbsp;<em>is<\/em>; it just <strong>depends<\/strong> on the difficulty<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>if they pace themselves and <strong>were<\/strong>&nbsp;physically fit.\n<ul>\n<li><em>were&nbsp;<\/em>should be the same tense as&nbsp;<em>pace<\/em>; if they pace themselves&nbsp;and <strong>are<\/strong> physically fit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Not only is hiking&nbsp;an easy activity to&nbsp;pick up, it also <strong>will have<\/strong>&nbsp;some great payoffs.\n<ul>\n<li><em>will have<\/em> should be the same tense as&nbsp;<em>is<\/em>;&nbsp;it also <strong>has<\/strong> some great pay offs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>As you <strong>walked<\/strong> through canyons and <strong>climbed<\/strong> up mountains\n<ul>\n<li><em>walked<\/em> and&nbsp;<em>climbed<\/em> are both past tense, but this doesn&#8217;t match the tense of the passage as a whole. They should both be changed to present tense: As you&nbsp;<strong>walk<\/strong> through canyons and&nbsp;<strong>climb<\/strong> up mountains.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>&nbsp;The views are breathtaking, and you <strong>will get<\/strong> a great opportunity to meditate on the world and your role&nbsp;in it.\n<ul>\n<li><em>will get<\/em> should be the same&nbsp;tense as&nbsp;<em>are<\/em>; you <strong>get<\/strong> a great opportunity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the corrected passage as a whole; all edited verbs have been bolded:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">If you want to pick up a new outdoor activity, hiking is a great option to consider.&nbsp;It&#8217;s a sport that can be suited for a beginner or an expert\u2014it just <strong>depends<\/strong> on the difficulty hikes you choose. However,&nbsp;even the earliest beginners can complete&nbsp;difficult hikes&nbsp;if they pace themselves and <strong>are<\/strong> physically fit.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Not only is hiking&nbsp;an easy activity to&nbsp;pick up, it also&nbsp;<strong>has<\/strong> some great payoffs. As you <strong>walk<\/strong> through canyons and <strong>climb<\/strong> up mountains, you can&nbsp;see things that you wouldn&#8217;t otherwise. The views are breathtaking, and you <strong>get<\/strong> a great opportunity to meditate on the world and your role&nbsp;in it. The summit&nbsp;of a mountain is unlike any other place in the world.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox key-takeaways\">\n<h3>Practice<\/h3>\n<p>Read the following sentences and identify any errors in verb tense. Type your corrections in the text frame below:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Whenever Maudeline goes to the grocery store, she&nbsp;had made&nbsp;a list and stick to it.<\/li>\n<li>This experiment turned out to be much more complicated than Felipe thought it would be. It ended up being&nbsp;a procedure that was seventeen steps long, instead of the original eight that he had planned.<\/li>\n<li>I applied to some of the most prestigious medical schools. I hope the essays I write get me in!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><textarea aria-label=\"Your Answer\" rows=\"4\"><\/textarea><\/p>\n<div class=\"qa-wrapper\" style=\"display: block\"><span class=\"show-answer collapsed\" style=\"cursor: pointer\" data-target=\"q615298\">Show Answer<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"q615298\" class=\"hidden-answer\" style=\"display: none\">\n<ol>\n<li><em>had made<\/em>&nbsp;and <em>stick<\/em>&nbsp;do not match the present tense that was set up by <em>goes<\/em>. The sentence should read, &#8220;Whenever Maudeline goes to the store, she&nbsp;<strong>makes<\/strong> a list and <strong>sticks<\/strong> to it.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>This sentence is correct.<\/li>\n<li><em>applied<\/em> and&nbsp;<em>write<\/em> do not match tense. If you&#8217;ve already applied, hopefully you&#8217;ve already written your essays as well! The&nbsp;sentences should read, &#8220;I applied to some of the most prestigious medical schools. I hope the essays I <strong>wrote<\/strong> get me in!&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-50\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Text: Verb Tense Consistency. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">Public domain content<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Hiker At The Mountain Top. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Jean Beaufort. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Public Domain Pictures. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.publicdomainpictures.net\/view-image.php?image=171368&#038;picture=hiker-at-the-mountain-top\">http:\/\/www.publicdomainpictures.net\/view-image.php?image=171368&#038;picture=hiker-at-the-mountain-top<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/pdm\">Public Domain: No Known Copyright<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":503070,"menu_order":23,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Text: Verb Tense Consistency\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"pd\",\"description\":\"Hiker At The Mountain Top\",\"author\":\"Jean Beaufort\",\"organization\":\"Public Domain Pictures\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.publicdomainpictures.net\/view-image.php?image=171368&picture=hiker-at-the-mountain-top\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"pd\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-50","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":27,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/503070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/50\/revisions"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/27"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/50\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-ecc-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}