More on Verbs: Consistency

and Voice

The Bottom Line: Be consistent!

Be Consistent with Tenses!
 Stick with one verb tense (unless
you have a good reason to switch)

 INCONSISTENT: The waitress ran

to the kitchen with the order in her
hand, raced back to her customers
with classes of water, and smiles
calmly.
Be Consistent with Tenses!
 CONSISTENT (CORRECTED): The waitress ran
to the kitchen with the order in her hand, raced
back to her customers with glasses of water,
and smiled calmly.
OR
 CONSISTENT (CORRECTED): The waitress runs
to the kitchen with the order in her hand, races
back to her customers with glasses of water,
and smiles calmly.
Let’s Practice…
 Page 494, Exercises 1, 2
Vocabulary
 Past Participle: the past tense form of
a verb that could be paired with the
helping verbs have, has, or had
 Had wanted
 Have sung
 Has swum
 Had loved
 Have studied
 Etc.
The Present Perfect Tense
 Present Perfect = Have/Has +
Past Participle of the Verb
 Use the present perfect to show
an action that started in the past
but is still going on in the present.
 EXAMPLE: My father has driven a
truck for five months.
Let’s Practice…
 Page 497, Exercise 4
The Past Perfect Tense
 Past Perfect = Had + Past
Participle of the Verb
 Use the past perfect tense to show
more than one event in the past—that
is, when two or more things happened
in the past but at different times.
 EXAMPLE: He had washed the dishes
by the time I came home.
Let’s Practice…
 Page 498, Exercise 5
Active and Passive Voices
 Active Voice: When the subject in
the sentence is actually doing the
action.
I painted the house.
 The people on the corner made a
donation to the emergency fund.
Active and Passive Voices
 Passive Voice: When the subject
in the sentence is having something
done to it; when the subject
receives the action of the verb.
 The house was painted by me.
 A donation to the emergency fund was
made by the people on the corner.
Active and Passive Voices
 In general, you should avoid using
the passive voice —it is not as
strong, straightforward, and clear
as the active voice.
 The only time you should use the
passive voice is when the doer of
the action is unknown or
unimportant.
Active and Passive Voices
 Acceptable Usage of the Passive
Voice:
 Our house was broken into last night.
(We don’t know who broke in.)
 A leather jacket was left behind in the
classroom. (We don’t know who left
it.)
 My favorite team was beaten last night.
(We don’t know/don’t care who beat
them.)
Active and Passive Voices
 Also, avoid shifts in voice; if part of
the sentence is in active voice, keep the
whole sentence in active voice (and vice
versa).
 INCORRECT: I designed the decorations
for the dance; they were put up by
Chuck.
 CORRECT: I designed the decorations for
the dance; Chuck put them up.
Let’s Practice…
 Page 500, Exercises 6, 7
Finally…
 See page 502
 “Used to”
 “Could have”

 “Should have”

 “Would have”