We refer to verb tenses daily when talking to someone, texting messages, or keeping a diary. Some stories show different sequences and periods. A verb-tense shift can occur when we jump between present and past scenes and change tense within a single piece of writing. To maintain flow and clarity, we need to check if the actions are consistent.How can we do this? Let's look at this example: When I opened the door, the cat ran into the house.

How can we check if the verb tenses are used correctly? We need to find the verbs and identify if the actions happened at the same or different points in time. Here we have two verbs, "opened" and "ran." Both refer to the past, the actions are consequent, so there is no shift in verb tense.

Now, look at the following examples:

In this revision, 'are' and 'made' are considered present tense, and 'was bathing' and 'made' refer to the past tense. This shift in verb tense is inappropriate, as the verb tenses need to be consistent throughout a sentence and an entire paragraph.

Here are some pro tips to make your writing foolproof:

1. Rely on past tense to describe events: When the children left the park, they went to the zoo. (картинка зоопарка)

2. When using the reported speech, follow the sequence of tenses:

For example, Ann said: "I'll call you back later." In the reported speech, it turns into: Ann said she would call me back later. According to the rule mentioned above, we change the verb "will" into "would."

Dave answered: "I want to go with you for a walk." Using the reported speech, we apply the past simple instead of the present simple.

Thus, we say: Dave answered he wanted to go for a walk with us.

Use present tenses to tell about facts, discuss your ideas and actions in a literary work, movie: Rain falls on the earth and gives water to live.

We can express a future in various ways, using will, shall, is going to, are about to, tomorrow and others.

It is possible to represent the future event, using the present simple when talking about the schedule or facts: Alex’s birthday falls on a Thursday next month. The train arrives at 5 pm and leaves at 5:15 pm.

Also, we reply to the present simple tense when talking about the result of a particular condition in the future. Such sentences are called the Conditional I: If it is sunny on Sunday, we will go for a picnic.

Follow these tips, and you will avoid unnecessary shifts in tenses easily.

We have prepared fun activities to help your students practice recognizing and controlling shifts in verb tenses.

Truth or Lie?

The first exercise will help students practice using different tenses. Prepare a list of questions with various tenses. Ask children to split into groups. One group will pick questions, and the other will answer them. Kids need to roll the dice so that their classmates can't see it. If the number is odd, then the answer to the question should be the truth, and if the number is even, the student should lie. Then the other children ask follow-up questions to figure out if it was the truth or the lie. This activity will help young learners master telling various stories and avoid inappropriate shifts in verb tenses.

Make up a story

First, you need to prepare the pictures. You can use our cards or take any illustrations from the comics or magazines for children.

Put these pictures in a jumbled order and ask your kids to arrange and describe them using the present, past, or future tenses. You may ask kids various follow-up questions to add details to the story. Also, children can put the cards in a different order to make up several stories. Children will love practicing with fun. These activities will help them master shifts in verb tenses in no time!