{

Verb Tense Agreement – Essay Edition

by Nikki Howard

We’ve all written papers before, and we’ve all come across the issue of verb tense agreement. Is? Was? Will? Would? What’s the difference anyway? Although it’s not the worst mistake to make, it does make a paper confusing. To try and keep a solid verb tense agreement, there’s a few easy ways to help spot and fix the problem.

But wait—what verb tense do I

even use?

For professional or academic papers the past tense is used. It moves the paper along quicker than using present tense because we know this has all happened already—we’re not watching it happen right then. For example:

Present tense: Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts and yells at students to hide as he runs through the hallways.

Past tense: Harry Potter returned to Hogwarts and yelled at students to hide as he ran through the hallways.

It’s strange, but the past tense reads better.

To make sure you’re consistent with your verb tense, read your paper out loud. Does something not sound right? Look at it again.

Ex: Scientists discovered that the average teenager played around ten hours on the computer while the average adult uses around two hours.

Look for the verbs in the sentence: discovered, played, uses.

‘Uses’ is the present tense, so it needs to be changed to ‘used.’

TIP #1

When proofreading think constantly of what HAD been done not what HAS been.

If you’re writing about how scientists discover a new way to cook pizza, remember that this was done in the past. Whatever you write about it, whatever you use for quotes, it all happened in the past.

Ex: In recent studies, scientists discovered that a hot sidewalk cooked a pizza quicker than an oven could. They proved their theory with the aid of two ambitious college students.

TIP #2

If you’ve still got some issues with verb tense, then highlighting verbs will make sure they’re not overlooked. Print out a copy, grab your favorite color, and get reading.

Doing this on a rough draft, past paper, or just the first page can even help you get into the flow of past tense before you start writing.

TIP #3

There’s nothing wrong with asking for help—mastery takes practice. You can ask a friend, a professor, or a Writing Center mentor to check over your verb tense if you still feel unsure. Happy writing and good luck!

REMEMBER: