Using the Three Main Tenses

By georgelthomas on 9 Aug 2022 • ( 0 )

Hi everyone, I hope you’re all well!

Today, I’m going to talk about the three main tenses and when to use them.

Present Tense
The present tense is used to describe actions that are happening right now. For example, if you are writing a story about a character who is eating dinner, you would use the present tense: Karl is sitting at the table “eating” his dinner. Another example of the present tense would be if you were writing about a character who is walking down the street: Karl is walking down the street.

Past Tense
The past tense is used to describe actions that have already happened. For example, if you were writing about a character who has already eaten their dinner, you would use the past tense: Karl “ate” his dinner yesterday. Another example of the past tense would be if you were writing about a character who walked down the street yesterday: Karl walked down the street yesterday.

Future Tense
The future tense is used to describe actions that have not happened yet but will happen in the future. For example, if you were writing about a character who is going to eat dinner later, you would use the future tense: Karl will eat his dinner later. Another example of the future tense would be if you were writing about a character who is going to walk down the street later: Karl will walk down the street later.

One important thing to keep in mind when using tenses is that you should be consistent throughout your story. If you start out writing in the past tense, stick with it. Don’t switch back and forth between tenses, as this can be confusing for your reader.

If you’re not sure which tense to use, take a look at some of your favourite books and see which tense they’re written in. And remember, there’s no right or wrong answer when it comes to choosing a tense – it’s all about what works best for your story.

Now that you know a bit more about using the different tenses, you can start to experiment with them in your own writing. See how they can change the way your story sounds, and how they can affect the mood of your work. Have fun and happy writing!

As always, thanks for stopping by for a read, I really appreciate it!

Until next time,

George