Guide for Mixed Tense Exercises, Lecture notes of English

Download Guide for Mixed Tense Exercises and more Lecture notes English in PDF only on Docsity! 1 English Language Resource Center, C-212 Free tutoring in writing, speaking, reading & grammar for BCC students who speak English as a second language Guide for Mixed Tense Exercises Part 1: The Basics Learning the basics of forming a verb tense is usually easy, and so is using that tense by itself. However, when the tenses are mixed together in grammar or writing, there can be a lot of confusion. Here are some tips to remember: 1. Look for the use of time words. A chart is given below. 2. Remember the purpose(s) of each tense. 3. Look at the context. There may not be any time words in the sentence, but the surrounding sentences will give a clue as to what should come next. Tense Time words Examples Simple present Every day, month, week, year; always; sometimes; never; frequently George jogs three miles every day. Mary always has salad for lunch. I sometimes go to New York City. Simple past Yesterday; # years, weeks, months, days, hours ago; in (past year); last (month, week, year) Tom went to Los Angeles yesterday. Charles Lindbergh flew to Paris in 1927. Simple future Tomorrow; in (future year, month, week); on (future day); next (month, week, year, name of day); # days, months, weeks, years from now; this month, week, afternoon, year; someday Mary will go to Hawaii in two weeks. Ed will drive to Toronto next Saturday. George will paint his house six days from now. Present Progressive Now; right now; at this moment You are reading sentences about verb tenses right now. Many students are taking calculus this semester. Future progressive At this time tomorrow At this time tomorrow, I will be cleaning my house. Present Perfect For; since; yet; never; always; so far; # times; many times; lately; recently; already Sam has visited Hawaii many times. Paul has been here for six hours. Yoko has known Mary since 1994. I have already written a letter to the president. Present perfect progressive For; since; lately; recently Rita has been jogging for two hours. 2 English Language Resource Center, C-212 Free tutoring in writing, speaking, reading & grammar for BCC students who speak English as a second language Part 2: Time Clauses Some verb tenses often work with time clauses. Sentences with time clauses have two parts: 1. The clause with the time word 2. The main clause Remember the following tips:  The part with the time word is always dependent.  Most time words work with more than one tense.  In the present, past, and future perfect progressive tenses, for is not always necessary, but it is frequently used.  *Before and after do not require the use of the past perfect, but it is possible. Time Clause Patterns Time word Time clause tense Main clause tense Examples While Past progressive Simple past (short action) While Anna was sleeping, a plane flew over her house. Past progressive (action at same time) While George was frying fish, Rita was peeling potatoes. Present progressive Future progressive While Anna is working tomorrow, her sister will be painting the living room. Before Simple present Simple future Before Karen leaves for work, she will roller- skate around her house three times. Simple past Simple past or past perfect* Before Karen left for work, she (had) roller- skated around her house three times. After Simple present Simple future After Karen takes her motorcycle to the mechanic, he will take a look at it. Simple past or past perfect* Simple past After Karen took [had taken] her motorcycle to the mechanic, she drove to work in a rented car. When Simple present Simple future When John finishes this semester, he will take a trip to France. Simple past Simple past When the sun rose, John got up. Past progressive When the pizza arrived, John was checking his e-mail. Past perfect When John’s friend came to pick him up, he had already checked his answering machine for messages. Past perfect progressive When John got home, his brother had been surfing the web for five hours. Until Simple present Simple future Until Mary finishes her scuba-diving course, she won’t take the advanced diving class. Simple past Past perfect Until Mary lost $50,000 in Las Vegas, she hadn’t realized that she had a gambling problem. As soon as Simple present Simple future As soon as I get home, I will take a nap. Simple past Simple past As soon as I got home, I took a nap.