3.9.6

Continuity of Tenses

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Continuity of Tenses

Keeping your writing in the same tense is important. The tense tells the reader the time that actions and events occur.

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Continuity of tense

  • It can be confusing for the reader if your tense changes between the past, the present or the future.
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Continuity of tense example

  • E.g. ‘Suzie jumped in the water and eats her sandwich.’
    • It is confusing that the event of ‘jumped’ tells us it happened in the past, but ‘eats’ is in the present.
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Continuity of tense example cont

  • It would be grammatically accurate to write, ‘Suzie jumped in the water and ate her sandwich.’
    • 'Jumped' and 'ate' are both in the past tense.

Jump to other topics

1Spelling

2Punctuation

3Grammar

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