When you’re composing any type of written work, sticking to the same tense is usually a good guideline to keep in mind. Sometimes, however, shifting tenses can be necessary to correctly express a situation. Of course, it can be tricky deciding when and when not to allow the frame of time to shift.
Good English grammar software can actually catch many mistakes relating to tenses. Generally, though, the following two situations will be the things you need to watch out for.
Don’t Shift When…
You’re talking about a subject that happens in a single tense, either in the present, past or future. For example, in the sentence:
We took the totals sales from the last two months, compared it to figures from last year and finally verify the variance.
The shift from past tense (took, compared) to present tense (verify) is unjustified. There is no benefit, at all, in indicating a present tense of finding the variance since the previous two statements already show the activities occurring from the immediate past. The correct way to write this would be either:
We took the totals sales from the last two months, compared it to figures from last year and finally verified the variance. (past tense)
or
We take the totals sales from the last two months, compare it to figures from last year and finally verify the variance. (present tense)
Shift Tenses When…
The meaning of the sentence requires the shift. The original sentence from above can actually be written out as:
We took the totals sales from the last two months, compared it to figures from last year and finally verified the variance that proves our theory.
The shift in tense from past (took, compared, verified) to the present (proves) was necessary because the proof was actually just dawning on them as it was written.
Tags: past tense, present tense, same tense, tenses, verbs, writing tenses, written work
