Introduction
Verb tense questions on the CLT primarily assess your ability to:
- maintain consistent verb tense within sentences and paragraphs.
- recognize correct tense shifts prompted by time markers or logical progression.
- distinguish a finite (main) verb form and a form (often an -ing form) that cannot serve as a sentence’s main verb.
Once again, context plays a primary role in ensuring you have chosen the correct tense (past, present, future, etc.). As always, as shown in the DIRECT method, read the entire sentence in which the verb is found. But if you still feel uncertain, you may need to zoom out and read backward or forward 1-2 sentences more to ensure you have thoroughly understood what verb “time” is appropriate.
Approach Question
Should you leave the sentence below as it is or opt for one of the three alternatives listed in the answer choices?
Ever since I learned about how World War I began, I thought of it differently.
- NO CHANGE
- had thought
- have thought
- will have thought
This example illustrates how there are nuances to the past and present tenses in English; we must carefully read the whole sentence in order to determine the best usage here.
Taking the last clause by itself, several of the answer choices sound possible: “I thought of it differently,” “I had thought of it differently,” “I have thought of it differently.” Which is best here? We have to locate exactly where the narration is in time, using the first part of the sentence. The key words are “ever since.” This introduction shows us that the narrator learned about the beginning of World War I and things have been different ever since. S/he began to think–and still thinks–about the war differently than s/he did before. This different kind of thinking isn’t something that began and ended; it is still happening as the narrator speaks in the present.
This means that, of the options, “have thought” is best. “Thought” alone would imply that the narrator thought something in the past but does so no longer. “Had thought” would push the action even further back into the past and away from where the narration currently stands. “Will have thought” is an uncommon form that has some future continuous action to it, but the sentence is not primarily focused on the future.
The tense expressed in “have thought” is known as the present perfect tense because it has aspects of both present (the action is still going on) and past (the action started in the past). “Perfect” is a grammatical word describing generally past tense verbs. It is not necessary to know the names of all English verb tenses, but in cases of a nuanced, combination-form verb tense like the present perfect, it is helpful to draw attention to it and make sure its meaning is clear in your mind.
Part 1: General Strategy
- Understand the tense spectrum.
- We encourage you to read the table below, including the examples. Again, you do not need to memorize all the tense with their names, but make sure you feel comfortable with the meaning of each of the tenses represented here.
- English uses forms of the verb “to be” to create additional nuance in a verb. For example, “I walked” shows that the action happened in the past, but we don’t know when or for how long. “I was walking” adds a continuous aspect to the action, as well as a vividness that brings the reader closer to the action.
| Simple present
|
I eat cupcakes.
|
| Present continuous
|
I am eating cupcakes.
|
| Simple past
|
Yesterday, I ate cupcakes.
|
| Past continuous
|
Yesterday, I was eating cupcakes when the doorbell rang.
|
| Present perfect
|
I have eaten cupcakes regularly since 2011.
|
| Present perfect continuous
|
I have been eating cupcakes regularly since 2011.
|
| Past perfect
|
I had eaten cupcakes before I went swimming. Bad idea.
|
| Past perfect continuous
|
I had been eating cupcakes while on lifeguard duty. Oops.
|
| Future perfect
|
I will have eaten hundreds of cupcakes by my 20th birthday.
|
| Simple future
|
I will eat a cupcake for dinner.
|
| Future continuous
|
I will be eating cupcakes all my life.
|
| Future perfect continuous
|
I will have been eating cupcakes for over a decade by age 20.
|
| Conditional
|
I would eat cupcakes for all three meals a day if I could.
|
| Gerund
|
I sure do like eating cupcakes.
|
| Present Participle
|
I saw a happy girl eating cupcakes.
|
- Look for cues like “yesterday,” “before,” “since,” or “next year.”
Example: By the time the event begins, preparations will have been completed.
Notice how the complicated form “will have been completed” works here because the marker “by the time” puts the event in the future; the “have been” part adds a past completion aspect. It’s as if we stand at a particular point in the future and look backward from there to see what has taken place.
- Be consistent with conditional language (e.g., “could” and “would”).
- Example: If she had known, she would have acted differently.
Practice Passage
In this section, you’ll find an excerpt Bartolome de la Casas’ A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies. We have included five Verb Tense questions to go with the passage.
The Warlike Engagements being over, and the Inhabitants all swept away, they [1] dividing among themselves the young men, women, and children reserved promiscuously for that purpose. One obtained thirty, another forty, to this man one hundred were disposed, to the other two hundred, and the more one was in favor with the domineering tyrant (which they styled Governor) the more he became master of, upon this pretense, and with this proviso, that he [2] should see them instructed in the Catholic religion, when as they themselves to whom they were committed to be taught, and the care of their Souls instructed them were, for the major part idiots, cruel, avaricious, infected and stained with all sorts of vices…
But here it is observable that the desolation of these Isles and Provinces began since the decease of the most Serene Queen Isabella, about the year 1504, for before that time very few of the Provinces situated in that Island were oppressed or spoiled with unjust Wars, or violated with general devastation as after they were, and most if not all these things were concealed and masked from the Queen’s knowledge (whom I hope God hath crowned with Eternal Glory) for she was transported with fervent and wonderful zeal, nay, almost divine desires for the salvation and preservation of these people, which things so exemplary as these we, [3] see with our eyes, and felt with our hands, cannot easily be forgotten.
[4] Taken this also for a general rule: the Spaniards upon what American coasts soever they arrived, exercised the same cruelties, slaughters, tyrannies, and detestable oppressions on the most innocent Indian nation, and [5] diverting themselves with delights in new sorts of torment, did in time improve in barbarism and cruelty; wherewith the Omnipotent, being incensed, suffered them to fail by a more desperate and dangerous lapse into a reprobate state.
- dividing
A. NO CHANGE
B. divide
C. divided
D. will have divided
The answer is C. It may not be completely clear from this sentence alone that we want an answer in the simple past tense. The way the verb forms “being over” and “swept away” lead into this main verb, it is possible that the narration is in the present tense. With this uncertainty in mind, we keep reading. Once the next sentence gives us verbs like “obtained”, “was”, and “became”, it is clear that “divided” is best here. “Divide” would be present tense, which isn’t consistent, and “dividing” isn’t a main verb at all. “Will have divided,” in the future perfect tense, is an unlikely answer, as this tense is used only in rare circumstances (circumstances that must begin the future tense, a tense we clearly don’t have here).
- should see
A. NO CHANGE
B. sees
C. seen
D. will see
The answer is A. This question is tricky because the desired tense is an unusual form. Let’s explore the context. This is a long sentence, but the most important context is just a few words before the underlined portion: the word “proviso”. The phrase “with the proviso … that” is a rather old-fashioned way of saying what we might rephrase as “on one condition … that”. For example, “I’ll do it, but on one condition: that you ____.” The verb to put in that blank technically goes in what is called the subjunctive mood, a form used to express possibility or uncertainty. That is the idea here: people were given to a “master” with the condition that he raise them Catholic. One way to phrase this subjunctive mood is with the verbal form “should”. That is the only valid option here.
That may seem quite difficult, but keep in mind that you can always use process of elimination. “Sees” would move the narration to present tense, which seems unlikely. “Will see,” the future tense, is even less likely. And “he seen” is not even a legal English form. So even though “should see” might make you feel uncertain about the answer, it is indeed the only one that fits the context.
- see
A. NO CHANGE
B. having seen
C. will have seen
D. sawn
The answer is B. This is a case where the other verbs in the sentence help us. It might initially seem like “see” is a good choice, but a few words later we encounter past tense form “felt”. These two verbs seem to be in parallel structure, so we might expect the right answer to be “saw”. But since that is not an option, what is our past tense choice? “Having seen” puts the action in the past (with a sense that the effects come into the present), and it sets up the narrative to use the main verb “cannot be forgotten” later in the paragraph. The idea is: now that we have seen and felt this, we cannot forget it. “Will have seen” brings in a future idea that is foreign to the context, and “sawn” is actually the past participle of the verb to “saw”, as in what you do with wood. The CLT is not above putting in verbs that sound right but that don’t even mean the same thing as the right answer!
- Taken
A. NO CHANGE
B. Taking
C. Take
D. Took
The answer is C. Did you catch how this verb at the very beginning of the sentence is being used? A major hint is the colon following a few words later (remember the “here it is!” aspect of the colon?). That’s a hint the verb here is an imperative; in other words, it is a request or command. The writer is telling the reader to “take” something, meaning that C is the correct choice. The way the sentence is structure, the clause before the colon needs to be a complete independent clause. This takes out “taking” and “taken” as possible answers. But “took” would be a past tense form that would not make sense, not least because it would not be clear who the subject of “took” is supposed to be.
- diverting
A. NO CHANGE
B. divert
C. diverted
D. diversion
The answer is A. This is a tough question that requires keeping the whole context in mind. The main verb in the first part of the sentence is “exercised”, so the action is generally in the past. But this is a compound sentence, as indicated by “and”, so we should expect another past tense verb to connect with “exercised” and extend the narration. This makes “diverted” a very tempting choice, but if you keep reading, you’ll see that the main verb of the second part of the compound sentence (before the semicolon) is “did”. It doesn’t quite work to use “diverted” before “did … improve”, without a conjunction like “and” or “but” to join them.
We can rule out the noun form “diversion,” as this clause clearly calls for a verb (the object of the verb is “themselves”). But “divert” would shift the tense to present and would also not go with “did improve” later in the sentence. An “-ing” form like “diverting” is best because this kind of form can modify the form “did improve”. In other words, the “diverting” (entertaining) themselves happened at the same time as the action described by “did … improve”.
For Reflection
- Rate the difficulty of CLT Verb Tense questions for you from 1 (no problem) to 5 (problem!). This will help you decide how much time to spend preparing for this passage.
- Do you understand the difference between the tenses described in the table? If some of the seem challenging to you, record them on flashcards for consideration later.
- Consider reading online about the difference between tense and mood in English grammar. We chose not to emphasize that difference in that lesson because they are similar in idea (and “mood” questions rarely surface), but since a couple of the practice questions referenced the idea of mood, it’s worth looking into it if you’re not familiar. But keep in mind that, if you’ve studied Latin, French, or Spanish, you have encountered mood when you have studied the subjunctive and imperative.
