Using Verb TensesLesson 4.8

Here’s the Idea

A good writer uses different verb tenses to show that events occur at different times.

If you do not need to show a change of time, do not switch from one tense to another.

Writing About the Present

The present tenses show actions and conditions that occur in the present.

You can write about the present using the present tense, the present tense, and the present progressive form.

• Bullet trains are common in Japan.

• The present tense places the action in the present.

• They reach speeds of more than 130 miles per hour.

• Subways have carried commuters to work for decades.

• The present perfect tense places the actions in a period of time leading up to the present.

• They have given workers a fast trip to work.

• Traffic engineers are improving mass transportation.

• The present progressive forms show the actions or conditions in progress now.

• They are making subways more pleasant.

Writing About the Past

• The past tenses show actions and conditions that came to an end in the past.

• When you write about the past, you can use past verb forms to indicate the order in which events occur.

• In the 1850s batteries propelled some train railways.

• The past tense shows action that began and was completed in the past.

• The first cable cars appeared in San Francisco in 1873.

• Until subways made commutes easy, workers had lived near their jobs.

• The past perfect tense places the actions before other past actions.

• People had crowded Boston’s streets before its subway opened.

• Officials were encouraging mass transit for years before highways got too crowded.

• The past progressive forms show that the actions in the past were in progress.

• They were preparing cities for worse traffic as the population grew.

Writing About the Future

• The future tenses show actions and conditions that are yet to come.

• By using the future verb forms, you can show how future events are related in time.

• People always will need to get from home to work.

• The future tense shows that the actions are yet to come.

• But many of them will commute fewer than five days a week.

• Home offices will have become popular before subways are overloaded.

• The future perfect tense places the actions or conditions before other future actions or conditions.

• By the time subways are full, workers will have learned to “commute” by computer.

• More people will be working at home several days a week.

• The future progressive forms show that the action or condition in the future will be continuing.

• Telecommuters will be sending their work to the office by computer.

Practice Time!Choose the correct verb form and identify the verb tense.

• The first electric subway (opens, opened) in London, England, in 1896.

• After subways (had run, ran) for a few decades, they improved.

• They (ran, will run) faster and were better ventilated.

• These automatic commuter trains (carry, had carried) millions of people every day.

• The next generation of subway trains (will move, had moved) without engines or rails.

opened

Past Tense

had run

Past Perfect Tense

ran

Past Tense carry

Present Tense

will move

Future Tense