|
VERB TENSE |
If the situation being described is an ongoing or current one, the
present tense is needed, even in a past-tense context: “Last week she
admitted that she is really a brunette” (not “was”).
Pairs of verbs that go together logically have to be kept in the same
tense. “Patricia described her trip to China and writes that the Great
Wall really impressed her.” Since “described” is in the past tense, and
the writing contains her descriptions, “writes”should be “wrote."
Lots of people get into trouble with sentences that describe a hypothetical situation in the past: “If he would
have packed his own suitcase, he would have noticed that the cat was in
it.” That first “would have”should be a simple “had”: “If he had packed
his own suitcase he would have noticed that the cat was in it.” Also
“The game would have been more fun if we had [not “would have”] won.”
This sort of construction consists of two parts: a hypothetical cause in
the past and its logical effect. The hypothetical cause needs to be put
into the past tense: “had.” Only the effect is made conditional: “would
have.” Note that in the second example above the effect is referred to
before the cause.
Students summarizing the plot of a play, movie, or novel are often
unfamiliar with the tradition of doing so in the present tense: “Hester
embroiders an ‘A’ on her dress.” Think of the events in a piece of
fiction as happening whenever you read them—they exist in an eternal
present even if they are narrated in the past tense. Even those who are
familiar with this pattern get tripped up when they begin to discuss the
historical or biographical context of a work, properly using the past
tense, and forget to shift back to the present when they return to plot
summary. Here’s how it’s done correctly: “Mark Twain’s days on the
Mississippi were long past when he wrote Huckleberry Finn, but Huck’s
love for life on the river clearly reflects his youthful experience as a
steamboat pilot.” The verb “reflects” is in the present tense. Often the
author’s activity in writing is rendered in the present tense as
well: “Twain depicts Pap as a disgusting drunk.” What about when you are
comparing events that occur at two different times in the same
narrative? You still have to stick to the present: “Tom puts Jim through
a lot of unnecessary misery before telling him that he is free.” Just
remember when you go from English to your history class that you have to
shift back to the past tense for narrating historical events: “Napoleon
lost the battle of Waterloo."
