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Tense Shifts

Tense Shifts. Rebekah Estey Matthew DeLeon Tamra DeJacimo Chris Bernardo. What is a tense shift?. Verb tenses describe “when” an action is in progress. When shifting verb tenses, the shifts must remain consistent to the time frame set for the narrative (past or present).

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Tense Shifts

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  1. Tense Shifts Rebekah Estey Matthew DeLeon Tamra DeJacimo Chris Bernardo

  2. What is a tense shift? Verb tenses describe “when” an action is in progress. When shifting verb tenses, the shifts must remain consistent to the time frame set for the narrative (past or present). However, only shift when necessary. Whenever possible, try to remain in thepresenttense. This is the tense which is currently happening. Use thepasttense when describing an event which has already happened.

  3. Tenses Present To make room for the cupcake! Actions happening at this very moment Ex: I love you, cupcake. Includes: infinitives Imperfect Ongoing actions in the past. Ex: I used to love you, cupcake. Pluperfect (past perfect) Actions which must happen in order to bring about another action. Ex: Had I loved you, cupcake. Future Actions that will take place. Ex: I will love you, cupcake. Future Perfect Perfect (present perfect) Actions that will be completed some time in the future. Ex: I will have loved you, cupcake. Actions happening in the past. Ex: I loved you, cupcake.

  4. Consistency • Let us take this sentence: • When I was a child I want to be a ninja. • The verb was is thepasttense of the verb to be. Thus, the narrator has chosen this tense for the “base” of the rest of his/her narrative. • Now, look at the verb “wants”. What tense is it? Let’s not be stupid. It’spresent, • obviously. • But, wasn’t the base for the narrative,past • tense? So, then what is the past tense of • “wants”? • Thus, our sentence should be: • When I was a child, I wanted to be a ninja.

  5. Consistency Cont. wow, now that’s redundant… Just because the narrator has set up a base, doesn’t mean we always put everything in the same tense. It would just sound funny and might I say, BORING! I saw a cat yesterday. It had black fur and a patch on its eye. It meowed. The End. Okay, so maybe not like that kind of boring, but still… A base is, simply, a time setting for when the narrator wishes to “base” his/her story. This means that it can be point B on a line chart, but it will always have a point A and C: Now let us modify ‘afore said story: Two days ago I had gone to the market and found this ugly excuse for a cat. So, I kicked it and it meowed. The End. The base =pasttense, because it was an event which happened “two days ago.” However, it uses not just thepast (point B), but an event which happened prior to the past (pluperfect), or point A. A B C

  6. By the way… Voice Passive Voice Active Voice Where the subject does the action Ex:MarcusbeatsSextus with a stick. Marcus cum baculo verberat Sextum. Marcus is the main subject of the sentence. He is the one doing the action. Thus the sentence is in the active voice. The subject receives the action Ex: Sextusis beaten by Marcus with a stick. Sextus cum baculo verberatus est Marco. Sextus is now the main subject of the sentence, however he is receiving the action. Thus the sentence is in the passive voice. It is preferable for many teachers to remain in the active voice. So, try to stay away from the passive voice, as it is too wordy, compared to the simplicity and directness of the active. And, most of all, try to avoid switching between active and passive voice.

  7. Works Cited • "Sequence of Verb Tenses." Guide to Grammar and Writing. Capital Community College • Foundation. 15 Dec. 2005 <http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/sequence.htm>. • Fulwiler, Toby, and Alan Hayakawa. Pocket Reference for Writers. • Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2002. • Guth, Hans P. You the Writer: Writing,Reading,Thinking. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997. • "Verb Tense Shifts." MIT Online Writing and Communication Center . 1999. Massachusetts Institute • of Technology. 12 nov. 2005 • <http://web.mit.edu/writing/Writing_Process/verbtenseshifts.html>.

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