Have you ever listened to someone tell a story about something that happened in the past, and they (singular they) relate it in the present tense? “So I go into the store, and I run into my friend. He says he is having a party, and he invites me.” Sounds awful, huh?
Tense in writing is time. The English language has six main tenses and six related tenses. Then there are some other tenses (conditional tenses), but we don’t need to talk about those.
Six main tenses:
- Simple present: I walk – I walk for an hour every day.
- Simple past: I walked – I walked to the beach yesterday.
- Future: I will walk – I will walk to your house tomorrow.
- Present perfect: I have walked – I have walked a mile every day this week. (repetitive or still continuing)
- Past perfect: I had walked – I had walked about a mile when I ran into Jill. (happened in the past before anther past event)
- Future Perfect: I will have walked – I will have walked 10,000 steps before this day is over. (in the future before another future event)
The related six tenses, which are called continuous or progressive:
- Present continuous: I am walking – I am walking the dog, so I will have to call you back.
- Past continuous: I was walking – I was waking along this path when I got stung by a bee.
- Future continuous: I will be walking – I will be walking to class until my car is fixed.
- Present perfect continuous: I have been walking – I have been walking to work for years.
- Past perfect continuous: I had been walking – I had been walking for an hour before my shoe broke.
- Future perfect continuous: I will have been walking – I will have been walking for four hours before I reach the end of the trail.
In speaking, it seems we actually use the continuous tenses more than the plain tenses. And we tend to avoid the perfect tenses. But each tense does have a different meaning, although sometimes slight.
Here are some tips for using tenses correctly when writing:
- Use one tense consistently. Your main tense clearly establishes the time of action. Switching for no reason is confusing to the reader.
- You don’t want the same time period being described by two different tenses – I saw the writing on the wall and then I pick up my things and leave.
- The main tense we use is generally either simple past or simple present (or continuous past or present).
- Use one tense for the main discourse and then indicate changes in time by changing tense relative to the primary tense – I know you students are confused. I know you think you will never understand this, but you will. I thought this was difficult when I was a student too.
- Stories are usually told using past tense. Dialog is often in present tense with a past tense tag (“I am coming with you,” she said.) Dialog will then revert to past or future to change the timeframe of events.
- Past tense works well in novels because it indicates that the narrator is telling the story from a distance. On the other hand, present tense creates a sense of immediacy, as if the events are happening in real time. A thriller might be effective written in present tense.
- Essays are usually written with present tense as the primary tense.
- And it goes without saying to watch out for those irregular past tense forms! Have eaten, not have ate. Have swum, not have swam. Have drunk, not have drank. And so on.
This short passage is confusing because it switches from present tense to past tense for no reason:
My favorite pastime is reading. I read for hours every day, and love to sit outside when I am reading. While I read, I drank a mocha.
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An Invitation
This blog has been running since the beginning of 2013. Fifty posts a year. Nine years. That’s 450 posts. I could use some guest posts. I know you have something interesting to say — about writing or books or language or grammar or anything you think might fit in this blog. Of course, I will the the final judge of that! I reserve the right to edit, and you can link to your website or social media or nothing at all. If you are interested please contact me here.
Thank you!
Thanks, Arlene.
Hey, you wrote about tense. I feel like this is the first time I am reading any of this information. Thank you so much. What would I write about as a guest poster? How about the problem of saying, “I” as in, “The police stopped my husband and I”, or, “I and my husband are going to the store”. It seems folks are unsure about when to say me. And often say I …the direct object.
So, Y’all …The police (the subject) stopped (y’all) Jake (it isn’t I it’s me) and ME.
I remember when you advised your readers that it was not okay to correct folks. Here, however, was an okay place to share. Thanks again
I have written about I versus me many times — not that everyone has it right anyway! You don’t need to write about grammar for a guet post – just something that is relate to words, language, books, etc. It can even be about yourself if it relates to the topics. I sometimes have people want to write posts about things like teenager starting businesses, which isn’t really related, so I say No
In the US.we use simple past and present but in the UK and other colonies like New Zealand, don’t the use past perfect more than we do? They say she had done something, rather than she did something? That’s my recollection but I’m wondering if that’s right….
You might be right; I am not sure, but there is a specific use for the past perfect (always make me think of the Latin pluperfect), so if they use it in place of simple past it isn’t right. It needs to be an action that took place in the past before another past action. It isn’t often used correctly, I would think. Did I ever tell you about the reviewer who harassed me about my definition of the past perfect in my books???? Maybe that is another blog post!