Verb Tenses

Understanding Verb Tenses

• Verb tenses show the time of an action.
• Used in various contexts such as question tags, active/passive voice, and reported speech.

Regular Verb Conjugation: 'To Walk'

Tense	Present	Past	Future	Conditional
Simple	I walk.	I walked.	I will walk.	I would walk.
Continuous	I am walking.	I was walking.	I will be walking.	I would be walking.
Perfect	I have walked.	I had walked.	I will have walked.	I would have walked.
Perfect Continuous	I have been walking.	I had been walking.	I will have been walking.	I would have been walking.

Regular vs Irregular Verbs

• Regular verbs form the past tense by adding '-ed' (e.g. walk → walked).
• Irregular verbs do not follow this pattern (e.g. eat → ate).
• Common irregular verbs include: to be, to have, to eat, to run, to sing.

Worked Examples

1. Changing to Plural Form

Sentence: That mother and baby still move in my thoughts.

✅ Answer: Those mothers and babies still move in our thoughts.

• 'That' → 'Those' (plural).
• 'Mother' → 'Mothers' (add 's').
• 'Baby' → 'Babies' (change 'y' to 'ies').
• 'My' → 'Our' (plural possessive).

2. Correcting Subject-Verb Agreement Errors

Sentence: My heart was in my throat and a thousand thoughts was racing through my mind.

✅ Answer: My heart was in my throat and a thousand thoughts were racing through my mind.

• 'Thoughts' is plural, so the verb must be 'were', not 'was'.

3. Changing Singular to Plural

Sentence: The Minister of Education worked tirelessly.

✅ Answer: The Ministers of Education worked tirelessly.

• Only the subject changes from singular to plural.

4. Correcting Verb Form Errors

Sentence: She make an impact on people.

✅ Answer: She makes an impact on people.

• Third-person singular subjects (he, she, it) need a verb ending in 's' ('makes').

5. Correcting Past Tense Errors

Sentence: His face were still partially paralysed and he spoke in a soft voice.

✅ Answer: His face was still partially paralysed and he spoke in a soft voice.

• 'His face' is singular, so the verb must be 'was', not 'were'.

6. Correcting Plural Form Errors

Sentence: Body language make up 50 to 100% of a conversation.

✅ Answer: Body language makes up 50 to 100% of a conversation.

• 'Body language' is singular, so the verb must be 'makes'.

7. Changing a Sentence to Plural Form

Sentence: When a person is lying, he tends to become generally less expressive.

✅ Answer: When people are lying, they tend to become generally less expressive.

• 'A person' → 'People' (plural).
• 'He' → 'They' (plural).
• 'Is' → 'Are' and 'Tends' → 'Tend' (verb must match plural subject).

Exam Tips for Verb Tenses

✔ Recognise regular vs irregular verbs.

✔ Understand how tenses change (simple, continuous, perfect).

✔ In exam questions, if a sentence needs two tense changes, expect two marks.