Tense

In this lesson, you will learn to

• Recognize simple present, past, and future tenses.
• Use the present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect appropriately.
• Use context clues to identify when a sentence requires a shift in tense.
• Use "would" correctly for past habitual actions or future-from-past viewpoints.

In Lesson 4: Finite Verbs and Clauses, you learned that a finite verb typically changes form as its subject changes from one that is singular to one that is plural.

You also learned that verbs can change form based on tense.

Often, you can recognize a past tense verb from its "-ed" ending (e.g., "wanted," "studied," and "determined"). In other situations, the past tense form of a verb doesn't follow a set pattern (e.g., the past tense form of "is" is "was," the past tense form of "teach" is "taught," and the past tense form of "go" is "went" — verbs like these are called irregular verbs).

In this lesson, you'll learn the different tenses covered on the DSAT. You'll also learn how to identify clues in DSAT tense questions that indicate which tense is needed to fill in the blank.