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Sentence Skills, Form A book cover
Sentence Skills, Form A, 7/e
John Langan, Atlantic Cape Community College

Consistent Verb Tense

Key Terms


consistent verb tense  tense, or time, that does not shift unnecessarily within a paper or a sentence. Ex.: Do not write "Smoke spills out and then suffocated them," but "Smoke spilled out and then suffocated them."
irregular verb  a verb that has an irregular form in the past tense and past participle. Ex.: choose, chose, chosen
nonstandard forms  forms of verbs used in the dialect of a particular community; these are generally not acceptable in written English or in formal contexts. Ex.: YesterdayI fix the car.
principal parts of verbs  the four parts of every verb: present, past, past participle, and present participle Ex.: Regular Verb: shout, shouted, shouted, shouting; Irregular Verb: choose, chose, chosen, choosing.
tense  time (in grammar)
verb tense  the times shown by verbs (present, past, future, etc.)