GRAMMAR MPU2201

VERB-TENSE CONSISTENCY

Verb tense consistency refers to keeping the same tense throughout a clause. We do not want to
have one time period being described in two different tenses. If you have two or more time
periods, start a new clause or a new sentence.

Mark finished his essay, tidies his room, and went out for supper.

Finished and went are in past tense, but tidies is in present tense. Logistically, this can’t happen.
We could fix this in a couple of different ways:

Mark finished his essay, tidied his room, and went out for supper.
Mark finished his essay and went out for supper, and now he is tidying his room.
The winds along the coast blow the trees over when the weather got bad.
The winds along the coast blow the trees over when the weather gets bad.
The winds along the coast blew the trees over when the weather got bad.
I’m eating the cake which I made this morning.

The verb tense consistency in this sentence is logical, as the cake must be made before it can be
eaten. Still, we use two clauses to show the different tenses.

Sequence of Tenses

The rules governing verb tenses are dictated by logic; an action in the future obviously cannot
happen before an action in the past. In writing, it’s a matter of looking at your clauses and
sentences, and determining when each action is happening. The past must come before the
present, and the present before the future, etc. Pay particular attention to the verb sequence when
you have a dependent clause before the independent clause, or a result clause before the if clause.

When the independent clause is in the past tense, the dependent clause may be written in the past
or possibly the present (see Exceptions), but not the future.

The cat was bathing because his feet are dirty.

Because the tense of the independent clause is in the past (was bathing), the verb in the second
clause (are) is in the wrong tense.

Correct:
The cat was bathing because his feet were dirty.
The cat is bathing because his feet are dirty.

1
 GRAMMAR MPU2201

Exceptions: There are two exceptions to this rule:

 for cases involving universal knowledge
Even the early doctors knew that the washing of hands prevents infection.

 when using a modal which has no past tense form

Could you please help me move this bookshelf?

Of course, this doesn’t mean that the actual verbs have to be in chronological order, just the
actions. We can put the dependent clause at the beginning of the sentence.

Athena will continue to learn English when she gets to The States.

It’s alright to have the future tense (will continue) before the present tense (gets) because the
temporal conjunction when shows that the second action actually happens first.

Watch out for conditional clauses, too.

We’ll go for a walk if the weather held.

The future tense of the result clause is too distant from the past tense of the if clause.
We’ll go for a walk if the weather holds.

Verb Tense
Verb tense is important to clear writing, because it tells the reader when something
happened, and often when something happened in relation to something else. There
are five basic verb tenses. In order for you to use verb tense consistently, you need to understand
when to use verb tenses. You can follow the guide below:

• Use the simple present tense for facts and consistent states (Cows eat grass),
happen routinely (I do homework in the evenings), or are scheduled to happen
in the future (We take our test tomorrow).

• Use the simple past tense for actions or events that happened at a specific time
in the past but have ended (I ate a chocolate pie yesterday).

• Use the simple future tense for actions or events that will happen in the future
and for actions or events predicted or planned to happen in the future (I will
read our assignment tomorrow).

• Use the present progressive tense (am, is, or are + the present participle—the

2
 GRAMMAR MPU2201

verb stem + “ing”) for actions that are in progress in the present but will not
continue indefinitely (I am studying for our test).

• Use the past progressive tense (was or were + the present participle) for actions
that were in progress sometime in the past but are no longer happening (I was
eating when you called).

• Use the future progressive tense (will be + the present participle) for actions
that will be in progress in the future (I will be going to London next month).