Quick Help: Editing verb tenses

Quick Help: Editing verb tenses

Errors in verb tenses take several forms. If you have trouble with verb tenses, check for common errors as you proofread.

  • Errors of verb form: for example, writing seen for saw, which confuses the past-participle and past-tense forms
  • Omitted auxiliary verbs: for example, using the simple past (Uncle Charlie arrived) when meaning requires the present perfect (Uncle Charlie has arrived)
  • Nonstandard varieties of English in situations calling for academic English: for example, writing they eat it all up when the situation requires they ate it all up

The sequence of tenses shows the relationship between the tense of the verb in the independent clause of a sentence and the tense of a verb in a dependent clause or a verbal.