GED Reasoning Through Language Arts
Verb Tense & Consistency
Tense places the action in time — past, present, or future. Inside one sentence or paragraph, the tense must stay put unless the meaning actually moves in time. Random tense hopping is the error; a real time shift is fine.
The words first
- past / present / future
- walked / walks / will walk
- perfect tenses
- had walked (before another past event), has walked (past reaching into now)
- consistency
- staying in one tense unless the timeline changes
- time markers
- words like yesterday, currently, by 1990, next year — they dictate the tense
The method
THE TIMELINE
had finished ── finished ── has finished ── finishes ── will finish
(before a (past) (past, still (now) (future)
past event) matters now)
CONSISTENCY
✗ She grabbed her keys and RUNS to the car.
✓ She grabbed her keys and RAN to the car.
A LEGITIMATE SHIFT (the meaning moves in time)
✓ The bridge WAS BUILT in 1931 and still CARRIES traffic today.
past fact present fact — both correct
MATCH THE TIME MARKER
By the time the guests arrived, we HAD EATEN.
(eating happened before another past event → had + verb)
Worked all the way through
The problem
Fix the tense: "Last summer, the crew repaired the roof, replaces two windows, and cleaned the gutters."
- Step 1 — Find the time marker."Last summer" — everything happened in the past.
- Step 2 — Check each verb against it.repaired ✓ past. replaces ✗ present. cleaned ✓ past.
- Step 3 — Fix the odd one out.replaces → replaced.
- Step 4 — Read the repaired list."repaired… replaced… cleaned" — three past-tense verbs, one timeline.
On the board
time marker: last summer
all verbs must be past
repaired ✓ replaces ✗ cleaned ✓
the odd one out
replaces → replaced
one timeline, one tense ✓
Answer
…repaired the roof, replaced two windows, and cleaned the gutters.
A second one, in a different form
"By the time the pizza arrived, we (ate / had eaten) all the snacks." Which is right?
two past events
snacks first, pizza second
earlier of two pasts → had + verb
had eaten ✓
Answer
had eaten
The usual mistake
Starting in past tense and drifting into present mid-sentence.
Check yourself
Find the time marker first and let it set the tense for the whole sentence. Then read each verb against that one timeline — the verb that jumps out of it is the error.
Practice it
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