Verb Tense
 Tense of a verb indicates the time of the action or of the
state of being that is expressed by the verb.
 Present Tense – shows action that happens regularly.
o Brandon plays football with Lee.
 Past Tense – shows action that happened.
o Brandon played football with Lee.
 Future Tense – shows action that will happen.
o Brandon will play football with Lee.
Present Tense
Past Tense
Future Tense
(will + base form)
Mike eats ice cream.
Mike ate ice cream.
We feed the cats.
They see a snake.
The bird sings.
We fed the cats.
They saw a snake.
The bird sang.
Mike will eat ice
cream.
We will feed the cats.
They will see a snake.
The bird will sing.
Verb Tense Consistency
 Do NOT CHANGE needlessly from one tense to another.
 When writing about events that take place at the same time,
use verbs that are in the same tense.
 When writing about events that occur at different times, use
verbs that are in different tenses.
INCONSISTENT
CONSISTENT
We sat on the porch and gaze at the stars.
We sat on the porch and gazed at the stars.
INCONSISTENT
out.
CONSISTENT
stepped out.
The car door open, and the woman stepped
The car door opened, and the woman
Active and Passive Voice
Active Voice
 Active verbs express an action done by its subject.
 The subject of the sentence performs the action.
Passive Voice
 Passive verbs expresses an action done to its subject
 The subject of the sentence is NOT PERFORMING the
action.
 Passive verbs are often preceded by HELPING verbs (is,
am, are, was, were, been) or followed with by.
ACTIVE
PASSIVE
subject DOES the verb
verb DONE to the
subject
Present
The school enforces
dress code.
Dress code is enforced.
Past
The school enforced
dress code yesterday.
Dress code was
enforced yesterday.
Future
The school will enforce
dress code tomorrow.
Dress code will be
enforced tomorrow.
Present
Perfect
The school has enforced
dress code all week.
Dress code has been
enforced all week.
 GOOD WRITERS USE ACTIVE VOICE WHEN
WRITING BECAUSE IT PAINTS A STRONGER
IMAGE FOR THE READER!!
 KEEP VERBS IN THE SAME SENTENCE IN
THE SAME VOICE !!!