First Lecture SAT Tenses

1. What does mean by tenses test?
Verb tense:
Verbs describe an action.
Verb tense, or how a verb
is conjugated, tells
us when that action occurs.
Present tense: I run to the
lake each day.
Past tense: I ran to the
lake yesterday.

2.  In English, there are three main tenses (past,
present, and future), each of which can be split into
four aspects

3. into four aspects
Simple Past Present Future
Simple I ran I run I will run
Perfect I had run I have run I will have run
Progressive I was running I am running I will be running
Perfect-
progressive
I had been
running
I have been
running
I will have been
running

4.  Verb mood:
 Verb mood, another element of verb formation,
tells us even more about the action being completed.

For instance, the indicative mood tells us about a
factual action, while the conditional mood tells us
about a possible action. [Show me!]


5.  Indicative:
 Sherri runs everyday.
 Conditional:
 If she had the time, Sherri would run everyday.

6. What's on the test?
 On your official SAT, you're likely to see 1-
2 questions that requires you to correct an error in
verb tense or mood.

You'll need to be comfortable conjugating all aspects
of past, present, and future tense verbs, which
you'll match to the time frame suggested by the logic
of the sentence.


7. Tips and strategies
 Top tip: Conjugate in context
 To determine if an action happens in the past,
present, or future, we'll need to rely upon context
clues in the sentence.
 Common clues include dates, times, and other
conjugated verbs.

8. What’s wrong?
 The poet John Milton, who famously wrote the epic
poem Paradise Lost, is born in 1609.


9. O, I see!
 The poet John Milton, who famously wrote the epic
poem Paradise Lost, was born in 1609.
 Explanation: Context clues from the sentence (like
the date “1609” and the past tense verb “wrote”)
reveal that "was born" should use the past tense.


10.  If you're not sure how to conjugate a verb, match the
tense of other verbs in the same sentence or
paragraph. Verb tense usually stays consistent
unless some shift in time occurs within the passage.

11. What’s wrong?
 After he lost one election for president, Thomas
Jefferson runs again, defeating the incumbent John
Adams.


12. O, I see!
 After he lost one election for president, Thomas
Jefferson ran again, defeating the incumbent John
Adams.
 Explanation: The simple past tense verb "lost"
indicates that the actions in the sentence occurred in
the past. To avoid an illogical shift in verb tense,
"ran" should also be conjugated in the simple past
tense.


13.  The simple present tense is often used to describe things
that are true in general.

If a statement is true regardless of timeframe, use the
simple present tense.
 Incorrect
 Black bears commonly grew to an adult weight of 200
pounds.
 Correct
Black bears commonly grow to an adult weight of 200
pounds.


14.  Antarctic spearwort, a low-growing shrub
with characteristic yellow flowers, is one of
only two native flowering plants which were
occurring in Antarctica.
 Choose 1 answer:Choose 1 answer:
 (Choice A)
 A
 NO CHANGE
 (Choice B)
 B
 occur
 (Choice C)
 C
 are occurring
 (Choice D)
 D
 will have occurred.
 Check


15.  Before the museum closed permanently, it faced
financial challenges that include a large deficit and
declining ticket sale revenues.

Choose 1 answer:
 (Choice A)
 A
 NO CHANGE
 (Choice B)
 B
 will include
 (Choice C)
 C
 would include
 (Choice D)
 D
 included