Verb Tenses (Grade 12 NSC Matric English FAL): Revision Notes
Verb Tenses
Understanding verb tenses
Verb tenses are essential tools that indicate when an action takes place. They help us communicate whether something happened in the past, is happening now, or will happen in the future. Understanding verb tenses is crucial for effective communication in English, as they appear in many different contexts including question tags, active and passive voice constructions, and reported speech.
Verb tenses are not just about timing - they also help express attitudes, possibilities, and relationships between different actions in complex sentences. Mastering them will significantly improve your overall English fluency.
Regular verb conjugation patterns
Regular verbs follow predictable patterns when changing tenses. Let's examine how the regular verb "to walk" changes across different tenses and forms:
Worked Example: Regular Verb "To Walk" Conjugation
Simple tenses
- Present: I walk
- Past: I walked
- Future: I will walk
- Conditional: I would walk
Continuous tenses
- Present: I am walking
- Past: I was walking
- Future: I will be walking
- Conditional: I would be walking
Perfect tenses
- Present: I have walked
- Past: I had walked
- Future: I will have walked
- Conditional: I would have walked
Perfect continuous tenses
- Present: I have been walking
- Past: I had been walking
- Future: I will have been walking
- Conditional: I would have been walking
Regular versus irregular verbs
Understanding the difference between regular and irregular verbs is fundamental to using correct tenses.
Regular verbs follow a consistent pattern when forming the past tense - they simply add '-ed' to the base form. For example, "walk" becomes "walked" in the past tense.
Irregular verbs do not follow this standard pattern and must be memorised individually.
Common irregular verbs include:
- be (was/were)
- have (had)
- eat (ate)
- run (ran)
- sing (sang)
These verbs change in unpredictable ways, making them more challenging for learners to master.
Common verb tense errors and corrections
Changing nouns to plural form
When converting sentences from singular to plural, multiple elements must change to maintain grammatical agreement.
Worked Example: Singular to Plural Conversion
Original: "That mother and baby still move in my thoughts" Correction: "Those mothers and babies still move in our thoughts"
Key changes needed:
- "That" becomes "those" (demonstrative pronoun)
- "Mother" becomes "mothers" (add 's')
- "Baby" becomes "babies" (change 'y' to 'ies')
- "My" becomes "our" (possessive pronoun adjustment)
Subject-verb agreement corrections
Verbs must agree with their subjects in number. Plural subjects require plural verb forms.
Worked Example: Subject-Verb Agreement
Original: "My heart was in my throat and a thousand thoughts was racing through my mind" Correction: "My heart was in my throat and a thousand thoughts were racing through my mind"
The error occurs because "thoughts" is plural, so the verb must be "were" rather than "was".
Converting singular subjects to plural
Sometimes only the subject needs to change while maintaining the same verb form.
Worked Example: Subject Conversion
Original: "The Minister of Education worked tirelessly" Correction: "The Ministers of Education worked tirelessly"
In this case, only "Minister" changes to "Ministers" whilst the verb "worked" remains the same.
Third-person singular verb forms
Present tense verbs with third-person singular subjects (he, she, it) require an 's' ending.
Worked Example: Third-Person Singular
Original: "She make an impact on people" Correction: "She makes an impact on people"
The verb "make" becomes "makes" when used with the third-person singular subject "she".
Past tense agreement errors
Past tense verbs must agree with their subjects in number.
Worked Example: Past Tense Agreement
Original: "His face were still partially paralysed and he spoke in a soft voice" Correction: "His face was still partially paralysed and he spoke in a soft voice"
Since "face" is singular, the correct past tense form is "was" not "were".
Singular subject identification
Some nouns may appear plural but are actually treated as singular subjects.
Worked Example: Singular Concept Recognition
Original: "Body language make up 50 to 100% of a conversation" Correction: "Body language makes up 50 to 100% of a conversation"
"Body language" functions as a singular concept, so it requires the singular verb form "makes".
Complete sentence transformation
When changing entire sentences to plural form, multiple elements must be adjusted consistently.
Worked Example: Complete Sentence Transformation
Original: "When a person is lying, he tends to become generally less expressive" Correction: "When people are lying, they tend to become generally less expressive"
Changes required:
- "A person" becomes "people" (singular to plural noun)
- "He" becomes "they" (singular to plural pronoun)
- "Is" becomes "are" (singular to plural verb)
- "Tends" becomes "tend" (verb agrees with plural subject)
Exam strategies for verb tenses
Essential recognition skills
To excel in verb tense questions, you need to develop these core abilities:
- Learn to identify regular versus irregular verbs quickly
- Understand how different tense forms work (simple, continuous, perfect)
- Practise recognising subject-verb agreement errors
When exam questions require multiple tense corrections, expect to receive marks for each correction made. If a sentence needs two tense changes, you should anticipate earning two separate marks.
Key areas to focus on
- Subject-verb agreement: Ensure verbs match their subjects in number
- Tense consistency: Maintain appropriate tense throughout related sentences
- Regular patterns: Master the standard rules before tackling irregular exceptions
Key Points to Remember:
- Verb tenses indicate the timing of actions and are essential for clear communication
- Regular verbs add '-ed' for past tense, whilst irregular verbs follow unique patterns
- Subject-verb agreement is crucial - plural subjects need plural verbs
- Third-person singular subjects (he, she, it) require verbs ending in 's' in present tense
- When converting sentences to plural form, check that all related words (pronouns, verbs, nouns) are adjusted consistently