{"id":67,"date":"2017-07-20T16:28:17","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T16:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/chapter\/verb-tense-consistency\/"},"modified":"2017-07-20T16:28:17","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T16:28:17","slug":"verb-tense-consistency","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/chapter\/verb-tense-consistency\/","title":{"raw":"Verb Tense Consistency","rendered":"Verb Tense Consistency"},"content":{"raw":"<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\u00a0<em>start<\/em> is in the present tense, but\u00a0<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\u00a0change their\u00a0minds halfway through writing the sentence, or when they\u00a0come back and make changes but only end up changing\u00a0half the sentence. It is very important to maintain a consistent tense, not just in a sentence but across paragraphs and pages.\u00a0Decide if\u00a0something 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><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\/2232\/2017\/07\/20162815\/hiker-at-the-mountain-top-e1466524403874-1024x740.jpg\" alt=\"A hiker at the top of a mountain. Other mountain peaks can be seen at lower elevations. The hiker is raising their hands in triumph.\" width=\"400\" height=\"289\"\/>If you want to\u00a0pick up a new outdoor activity, hiking is a great option to consider.\u00a0It's a sport that is\u00a0suited for a beginner or an expert\u2014it just\u00a0depended on the difficulty hikes you choose. However,\u00a0even the earliest beginners can complete\u00a0difficult hikes\u00a0if they pace themselves and were\u00a0physically fit.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Not only is hiking\u00a0an easy activity to\u00a0pick up, it also will have\u00a0some great payoffs. As you walked through canyons and climbed up mountains, you can\u00a0see 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\u00a0in it. The summit\u00a0of a mountain is unlike any other place in the world.<\/p>\nWhat errors did you spot?\u00a0Let's take another look at this passage. This time, the tense-shifted\u00a0verbs have been bolded, and\u00a0the phrases they belong to have been underlined:\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">If you want to\u00a0pick up a new outdoor activity, hiking is a great option to consider.\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">It's a sport that is\u00a0suited for a beginner or an expert\u2014it just\u00a0<strong>depended<\/strong> on the difficulty hikes you choose.<\/span> However,\u00a0even the earliest beginners can complete\u00a0difficult hikes\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">if they pace themselves and <strong>were<\/strong>\u00a0physically fit<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Not only is hiking\u00a0an easy activity to\u00a0pick up, it also <strong>will have<\/strong>\u00a0some great payoffs<\/span>. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">As you <strong>walked<\/strong> through canyons and <strong>climbed<\/strong> up mountains<\/span>, you can\u00a0see 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\u00a0in it<\/span>. The summit\u00a0of 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\u00a0are 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\u00a0in the present tense,\u00a0let's address each of the underlined\u00a0segments:\n<ul><li>It's a sport that is\u00a0suited for a beginner or an expert\u2014it just\u00a0<strong>depended<\/strong> on the difficulty hikes you choose.\n<ul><li><em>depended<\/em> should be the same tense as\u00a0<em>is<\/em>; it just <strong>depends<\/strong> on the difficulty<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/li>\n \t<li>if they pace themselves and <strong>were<\/strong>\u00a0physically fit.\n<ul><li><em>were\u00a0<\/em>should be the same tense as\u00a0<em>pace<\/em>; if they pace themselves\u00a0and <strong>are<\/strong> physically fit.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/li>\n \t<li>Not only is hiking\u00a0an easy activity to\u00a0pick up, it also <strong>will have<\/strong>\u00a0some great payoffs.\n<ul><li><em>will have<\/em> should be the same tense as\u00a0<em>is<\/em>;\u00a0it also <strong>has<\/strong> some great pay offs<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/li>\n \t<li>As you <strong>walked<\/strong> through canyons and <strong>climbed<\/strong> up mountains\n<ul><li><em>walked<\/em> and\u00a0<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\u00a0<strong>walk<\/strong> through canyons and\u00a0<strong>climb<\/strong> up mountains.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/li>\n \t<li>\u00a0The views are breathtaking, and you <strong>will get<\/strong> a great opportunity to meditate on the world and your role\u00a0in it.\n<ul><li><em>will get<\/em> should be the same\u00a0tense as\u00a0<em>are<\/em>; you <strong>get<\/strong> a great opportunity<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/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.\u00a0It'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,\u00a0even the earliest beginners can complete\u00a0difficult hikes\u00a0if they pace themselves and <strong>are<\/strong> physically fit.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Not only is hiking\u00a0an easy activity to\u00a0pick up, it also\u00a0<strong>has<\/strong> some great payoffs. As you <strong>walk<\/strong> through canyons and <strong>climb<\/strong> up mountains, you can\u00a0see 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\u00a0in it. The summit\u00a0of 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><li>Whenever Maudeline goes to the grocery store, she\u00a0had made\u00a0a 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\u00a0a 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><li><em>had made<\/em>\u00a0and <em>stick<\/em>\u00a0do not match the present tense that was set up by <em>goes<\/em>. The sentence should read, \"Whenever Maudeline goes to the store, she\u00a0<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\u00a0<em>write<\/em> do not match tense. If you've already applied, hopefully you've already written your essays as well! The\u00a0sentences 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>","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\u00a0<em>start<\/em> is in the present tense, but\u00a0<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\u00a0change their\u00a0minds halfway through writing the sentence, or when they\u00a0come back and make changes but only end up changing\u00a0half the sentence. It is very important to maintain a consistent tense, not just in a sentence but across paragraphs and pages.\u00a0Decide if\u00a0something 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?\n<\/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\/2232\/2017\/07\/20162815\/hiker-at-the-mountain-top-e1466524403874-1024x740.jpg\" alt=\"A hiker at the top of a mountain. Other mountain peaks can be seen at lower elevations. The hiker is raising their hands in triumph.\" width=\"400\" height=\"289\" \/>If you want to\u00a0pick up a new outdoor activity, hiking is a great option to consider.\u00a0It&#8217;s a sport that is\u00a0suited for a beginner or an expert\u2014it just\u00a0depended on the difficulty hikes you choose. However,\u00a0even the earliest beginners can complete\u00a0difficult hikes\u00a0if they pace themselves and were\u00a0physically fit.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Not only is hiking\u00a0an easy activity to\u00a0pick up, it also will have\u00a0some great payoffs. As you walked through canyons and climbed up mountains, you can\u00a0see 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\u00a0in it. The summit\u00a0of a mountain is unlike any other place in the world.<\/p>\n<p>What errors did you spot?\u00a0Let&#8217;s take another look at this passage. This time, the tense-shifted\u00a0verbs have been bolded, and\u00a0the phrases they belong to have been underlined:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">If you want to\u00a0pick up a new outdoor activity, hiking is a great option to consider.\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">It&#8217;s a sport that is\u00a0suited for a beginner or an expert\u2014it just\u00a0<strong>depended<\/strong> on the difficulty hikes you choose.<\/span> However,\u00a0even the earliest beginners can complete\u00a0difficult hikes\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">if they pace themselves and <strong>were<\/strong>\u00a0physically fit<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Not only is hiking\u00a0an easy activity to\u00a0pick up, it also <strong>will have<\/strong>\u00a0some great payoffs<\/span>. <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">As you <strong>walked<\/strong> through canyons and <strong>climbed<\/strong> up mountains<\/span>, you can\u00a0see 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\u00a0in it<\/span>. The summit\u00a0of 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\u00a0are 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\u00a0in the present tense,\u00a0let&#8217;s address each of the underlined\u00a0segments:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It&#8217;s a sport that is\u00a0suited for a beginner or an expert\u2014it just\u00a0<strong>depended<\/strong> on the difficulty hikes you choose.\n<ul>\n<li><em>depended<\/em> should be the same tense as\u00a0<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>\u00a0physically fit.\n<ul>\n<li><em>were\u00a0<\/em>should be the same tense as\u00a0<em>pace<\/em>; if they pace themselves\u00a0and <strong>are<\/strong> physically fit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Not only is hiking\u00a0an easy activity to\u00a0pick up, it also <strong>will have<\/strong>\u00a0some great payoffs.\n<ul>\n<li><em>will have<\/em> should be the same tense as\u00a0<em>is<\/em>;\u00a0it 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\u00a0<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\u00a0<strong>walk<\/strong> through canyons and\u00a0<strong>climb<\/strong> up mountains.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0The views are breathtaking, and you <strong>will get<\/strong> a great opportunity to meditate on the world and your role\u00a0in it.\n<ul>\n<li><em>will get<\/em> should be the same\u00a0tense as\u00a0<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.\u00a0It&#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,\u00a0even the earliest beginners can complete\u00a0difficult hikes\u00a0if they pace themselves and <strong>are<\/strong> physically fit.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Not only is hiking\u00a0an easy activity to\u00a0pick up, it also\u00a0<strong>has<\/strong> some great payoffs. As you <strong>walk<\/strong> through canyons and <strong>climb<\/strong> up mountains, you can\u00a0see 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\u00a0in it. The summit\u00a0of 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\u00a0had made\u00a0a 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\u00a0a 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>\u00a0and <em>stick<\/em>\u00a0do 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\u00a0<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\u00a0<em>write<\/em> do not match tense. If you&#8217;ve already applied, hopefully you&#8217;ve already written your essays as well! The\u00a0sentences 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-67\">\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":19,"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-67","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":22,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/67\/revisions"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/22"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/67\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}