Tense Consistency Exercises: Answers

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A. Recognizing Shifts in Sentences

In most cases with an inappropriate shift below, there is more than one way to correct the inconsistency. Each suggested change is probably not the only correct one for the sentence.

_U_ 1. If the club limited its membership, it will have to raise its dues. (change will to would)

_U_ 2. As Barbara puts in her contact lenses, the telephone rang. (change puts to put)

_S_ 3. Thousands of people will see the art exhibit by the time it closes.

_U_ 4. By the time negotiations began, many pessimists have expressed doubt about them. (change have to had)

_U_ 5. After Capt. James Cook visited Alaska on his third voyage, he is killed by Hawaiian islanders in 1779. (change is to was)

_U_ 6. I was terribly disappointed with my grade because I studied very hard. (change studied to had studied)

_S_ 7. The moderator asks for questions as soon as the speaker has finished. (asks as habitual action; will ask is also possible)

_U_ 8. Everyone hopes the plan would work. (change hopes to hoped)

_S_ 9. Harry wants to show his friends the photos he took last summer.

_S_ 10. Scientists predict that the sun will die in the distant future.

_U_ 11. The boy insisted that he has paid for the candy bars. (change has to had)

_U_ 12. The doctor suggested bed rest for the patient, who suffers from a bad cold. (change suffers to was suffering)

B. Completing Sentences

Many answers are possible.

C. Completing Paragraphs

The underlined verbs in the following passage are each in the correct tense.

In Banjuh, the capital of Gambia, I met with a group of Gambians. They told me how for centuries the history of Africa has been preserved. In the older villages of the back country, there are old men called griots, who are in effect living archives. Such men memorize and, on special occasions, recite the cumulative histories of clans or families or villages as those histories have long been told. Since my forefather had said his name was Kin-tay (properly spelled Kinte), and since the Kinte clan was known in Gambia, the group of Gambians would see what they could do to help me. I was back in New York when a registered letter arrived from Gambia.

Word had been passed in the back country, and a griot of the Kinte clan had, indeed, been found. His name, the letter said, was Kebba Kanga Fofana. I returned to Gambia and organized a safari to locate him.

D. Controlling Shifts in Paragraphs

In this first paragraph, the two verbs in present tense--both appropriate for the situation--are indicated in bold.

The Iroquois Indians of the Northeast regularly burned land to increase open space for agriculture. In fact, the early settlers of Boston found so few trees that they had to row out to the islands in the harbor to obtain fuel. Just how far north this practice extended is uncertain, but the Saco River in southern Maine appears to have been the original northern boundary of the agricultural clearings. Then, pressured by European settlement, the Iroquois extended their systematic burning far northward, even into the Maritime Provinces of Canada. (abridged from Hay and Farb, The Atlantic Shore)

The main tense in this next paragraph is present. Incorrect shifts to past tense are indicated in bold.

For the past seven years, I have called myself a swimmer. Swimming, my one sport, provides a necessary outlet for my abundant energy. I have always drawn satisfaction from exertion, straining my muscles to their limits. I don't know why pushing forward in the water, as my muscles cried out in pain, sets off a booming cheer in my head. Many times when I rounded the turn for the last lap of a race, my complaining muscles want to downshift and idle to the finish. My mind, however, presses the pedal to the floor and yells, "FASTER!" The moment that I touched the wall my muscles relax; the pain subsides. I am pleased to have passed the point of conflict. (adapted from Brendon MacLean, "Harder!")

Since the following paragraph describes action in a fictional narrative, the main tense should be present. The six incorrect shifts to past tense are underlined.

In "The Use of Force" William Carlos Williams describes a struggle involving a doctor, two parents, and their young daughter. The doctor must obtain a throat culture from the girl, who was suspected of having diphtheria. This ordinarily simple task is hindered by the frightened and uncooperative patient, Mathilda Olson. Adding to the doctor's difficulties were the parents, who had to struggle with their own conflicting emotions. They want their daughter helped, but they did not trust the doctor to do the right thing. Sensitive to the parents' uncertainty, the doctor became more and more frustrated by Mathilda's resistance. Williams gives considerable attention to how each of the Olsons react, but it is clear that his main interest was in the doctor and his responses. (adapted from a student essay)

 

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