Your past tense should follow the seven rules below so that there is a noun-verb agreement, correct past tense form and makes sense to the reader. The rules also help fix past tense writing errors. Always determine the correct tense before writing your article Determine the correct tense before typing the first word. A majority of past events are written in the simple past tense. For example, “She ran from home to school each morning.” Sometimes you will be required to write in the past perfect to describe events that happened before something else. For example, we were glad to discover that “John had won the jackpot.” Get the best tense based on the chronology of events in your article. Be careful to retain clarity when mixing tenses Sometimes you need to jump back to the past and then to the present when describing some actions. Unfortunately, you may lose clarity in the process and make it hard for your readers to understand what you are saying. Here is an example, “When Mary knew that John had passed the exam, she called to congratulate him”. In the sentence, the writer mixes past simple and perfect tenses to show the chronology of events. Keep to active voice as much as possible Many student and writers have problems keeping their voice active when writing in the past tense. This often makes the work less clear and full of filler. When writing, ensure that your voice is active whenever possible. For example, Instead of saying, “The room was maintained by Mary”, say, “Mary maintained the room”. Irregular verbs do not follow the –ed tag to change to past tense Regular verbs only require you to add –end at the end of the simple present tense to make them simple past tense. However, irregular verbs change entirely when actions take place in the past. For example, go changes to went. However, these verbs are only irregular in positive sentences such as “He went to the park”. In negative or question sentences, you use the present form. For example, “He didn’t go to the park”. The past tense of to be has two forms
There is always one form of verbs in past tense. However, in the past tense of to be, there are two forms; was and were. For example, “I was tired when I came home”. “They were rewarded for their efforts” he, she and I pronouns use ‘was’ while you and they use ‘were’. Don’t and doesn’t change to didn’t in the past We use the word ‘didn’t’ to make negative sentences in the past tense when using either regular or irregular verbs. The only exception is the verb to be and modal verbs like ‘can’. Here is an example: Present: You don’t need the medication Past: You didn’t need the medication Writing past simple questions When writing questions in the simple past tense, start the question with ‘did’ followed by the base form of the verb. For example, ‘Did Simon go to school?”
The past tense finder can find and fix the following past tense errors:
If you are wondering, “Is there an app for checking past tense?” We have a free past tense checker online that has several advantages over manual proofreading. Here are some of the advantages:
