Grammar Review

Verb Tenses Review

Verb Tenses

There are two types of verbs: Action

Example: run, swim, fly, think.

Helping/Linking. is, are, was, were, be, been, being, am have, had, has do, does, did may, might, must can, could, shall, should, will, would

Verb Tenses

Verb Tense confusion in essays seems to often come from confusion when an event happens. Since students are writing about other

people, other essays, or new ideas that they don’t have much schema for, students might not know what the right verb tense is.

Verb Tenses

I recommend doing the following activity on a daily basis for a couple of weeks, to help clear your mind about verb tense and when an action happens:

Write 1 sentence about something you did yesterday.

Write 1 sentence about something you are doing now.

Write 1 sentence about something you intend to do tomorrow.

Verb Tenses Three basic rules for verb tense when

writing an essay, in order to avoid confusion:

Write your essay in the past tense. Almost everything you write about will have happened before

you write your essay.

Universal truths will be in present tense. Example: Mission College is in Santa Clara.

Future plans are in future tense. Usually solutions in argumentation problem/solution essays will

need to be in future tense.

Verb Tenses Past tense forms

Past Tense. Example: She walked.

She was walking. (to be + verb + ing)

Past Perfect (to have + verb) Example: She had walked.

She had been walking. (to be + verb + ing)

Past Habitual (to use + verb or linking + verb) Example: She used to walk.

She used to be walking. (to be + verb + ing) She would walk. She would be walking. (to be + verb + ing)

Verb Tenses

Future tense forms

Future Tense (linking + verb) Example: She will walk.

She will be walking. (to be + verb + ing)

Future Perfect (linking + to have + verb) Example: She will have walked.

She will have been walking. (to be + verb +ing)