Grade 9 English Quarter 4, Module 5Lesson 5, Tense Consistency

What is a tense? Can you enumerate the different tenses? Why is it so important to maintain tense consistency?

Lesson 4

EN9G-IVi-25: Observe tense consistency in writing an evaluation

Evaluative WritingIn class, you might be asked to write book reports or to criticize a play or movie that you watched. These are examples of evaluative writing, which might be confusing to write because you are trying to narrate or explain what happened in the source material (e.g., book, movie) while simultaneously discussing your own opinions to the reader. This confusion might be reflected in an inconsistent verb tense.

Verb TenseThe verb tense indicates when an action happens or is done. The three basic tenses are: past, present, and future.

Tense ConsistencyThe basic rule is to make sure that your tense is consistent throughout your entire composition. If you began with the present tense, then you should use the present tense for all the verbs that appear in the text.

Example:Last night, Monk Gyatsu took off his bead necklace and held it in his hand as he sits down by the river to meditate.

Explanation:In this example, the present tense of the verb sits is inconsistent with the rest of the verbs in the sentence, which are in the past tense because the event happened last night. The sentence should be written as:

Last night, Monk Gyatsu took off his bead necklace and held it in his hand as he sat down by the river to meditate.

Shifting Tenses CorrectlyHowever, there might be instances in which you would need to change tenses. This is necessary when you want to indicate a difference in time frame.

Example:Joanne forever remembered her Lola Mimi, who called her Joneng, taught her how to crochet and sang lullabies to her every night.

Explanation:The tense consistency in this sentence is not necessarily incorrect. Everything Lola Mimi did in the past should be in the past tense. However, the phrase Joanne forever rememberedcould cause some confusion. Forever should indicate an action that occurs into an indefinite future, like so:

Joanne will forever remember her Lola Mimi, who called her Joneng, taught her how to crochet and sang lullabies to her every night.

But the first sentence is still correct if the writer simply meant to narrate events from the past. For instance, we could assume that Joanne already passed away and her "forever" has ended. Also, the writer could be recalling the events in a fictional story that he already finished reading. Hence, the story has ended.

Tense Consistency in Evaluative WritingAn evaluation is a piece of writing meant to give a judgment or appraisal of a text in a thoughtful and careful way. It can be quite tricky to employ tense consistency in evaluative writing.

Example:The last episode of The Runaways showed the characters Jesse, Georgina, Kyle, and Bogart--the vigilante group Quatro Kids--battle it out with the Alpha Beta Gamma Gang. The new villains seemed like very formidable opponents for our protagonists. Things did not look good for the Quatro Kids. 

The episode begins with Kyle waking up to see Bogart being tranquilized by an ABG Gang member. He calls  for help and both Jesse and Georgina storm the room with karate kicks and punches. The other gang members respond with crossbows shooting poison darts everywhere. Jesse gets shot in the thigh and Kyle gets  two darts on the forehead. The poison knocks them both out cold. Georgina is the only one left fighting now. She picks up Bogart's billiard stick and breaks  it in half then busts out her best arnis moves. 

This is what I  like most about The Runaways. The show gives every member the chance to shine and do what they do best. I will definitely recommend this show to everyone.Explanation:Notice how many times the tense shifted in this composition without being grammatically incorrect. In the first paragraph, the writer first used the past tense to talk about an event that happened in the past, which is the airing of the latest episode of a TV show.

The tense shifts to the present tense in the second paragraph because the writer wanted to narrate the events that happened within the episode as if the reader were seeing it with along with him. The last paragraph contains several tense shifts. He uses the present tense to talk about his current opinion on the show. He ends with a future tense because he is talking about his future intention.

Make sure that your tense is consistent throughout your entire composition.

There might be instances in which you would need to change tenses. This is necessary when you want to indicate a

difference in time frame.

Exercise A.

1. It is a piece of writing meant to give a judgment or appraisal of a text in a thoughtful and careful way.

2. The verb __________ indicates when an action happens or is done.3. There are _________ basic verb tenses.

a. threeb. sixc. nined. twelve

4. When a sentence begins in the present tense, the other verbs should be ________.

a. in the past tenseb. in the future tensec. in the present tense as welld. in the plural form

5. Which of the following is not an example of evaluative writing?a. a short storyb. a book reportc. a song critiqued. a review of a play

6. Which of the following sentences shows a proper shift in the verb tense?a. Myka will always be grateful to her old friends, as they helped her and

supported her in her endeavors.b. June needs to go to the mall, buy some groceries, and will head home in

time for lunch.c. For many years now, the town of Omashi is worshiping the goddess of the

storm, asking her for mercy and offering her gifts from the sea.d. There were so many things Kiko wanted to do, places he wanted to

explore, and people he wanted to meet.7. Which of the following sets of verbs, when used in a sentence, would be

consistent in tense?a. plays, says, miss, hasb. sang, broke, dug, recoveredc. joined, carried, caught, watchd. make, break, involved, chain

8. Paulo's composition was returned to him by his teacher with a note that said he should rewrite it and correct his errors with regard to his usage of verbs.

Which of the following could be the problem in Paulo's composition?

a. The tenses of the verbs he used were inconsistent.b. The verbs he used were few.c. The verbs he used were not clear.d. The verbs he used should be inconsistent.

9. Mia wrote an evaluation, and she shifted tenses several times.

Which of the following was she trying to indicate?a. a difference in time frameb. a consistency in time framec. the wide range of emotions in the text being evaluatedd. the number of actions in the text being evaluated

10.The writer portrayed and emphasized the value of friendship and wants the readers to relate to the story.

Which of the following correctly states what is wrong in the sentence?a. The word "relate" should be in the past tense.b. The verb "wants" is inconsistent with the other verbs in the sentence.c. The word "portrayed" is inconsistent with the other verbs in the sentence.d. The word "emphasized" should be in the present tense.

Answer Key:

A

1. Evaluation2. Tense3. A4. C5. A6. A7. B8. A9. A10.B