In this section we will cover tense, aspect/voice and mood; we will also cover how to form adjectives and adverbs from a simple verb.

Tense tells your reader, and indeed yourself, in what time period the events you describe take place. It is important that the tense of your work be appropriate, and consistent. Below you will find a table describing the tenses, and what they mean; below that, you will find a few examples of each tense, given in a sentence so that you may know in what context you may use each tense.

Common Tenses for verb "to answer" (this form of the verb - to [blank] - is called the infinitive because it has no tense or time).

• Present:
  • Present Simple: he answers
  • Present Continuous: he is answering
  • Perfect: he has answered

• Past:
  • Past simple: he answered
  • Past Continuous or Imperfect: he was answering / he used to answer
  • Past Perfect or Pluperfect: he had answered

• Future:
  • Future: he will answer
  • Future Continuous: he will be answering
  • Future Perfect: he will have answered

Examples:

Present Tenses

1. "I am waiting for someone," she told him.
2. "I am afraid that I cannot help you as my friend has just arrived."

As you can see, the present tense is mostly used in direct speech. It denotes that an action is currently taking place, and is not yet complete. Though the perfect tense describes a completed action, it is counts as a present tense because it always has strong implications for the present.

Past Tenses

1. He was walking along the road when the tree fell on him.
2. When she opened the door, she noticed that he was sleeping. He used to sleep in the afternoons.

The past simple tense is the most commonly used tense in writing, and is used to denote a past, completed action.

The imperfect or continuous past tense is usually used in conjunction with the simple past simple tense, and denotes an incomplete, continual, or habitual action in the past.

The pluperfect tense is usually used in conjunction with other past tenses, and is used to show an action further in the past than the main action.

1. He had completed his task when the door swung open.
2. He had just ignited his new lightsaber when he became aware of a presence in the room.
3. Whilst she was sleeping, he had broken a vase.

Future Tenses

1. He will not find a warm welcome here.
2. We will soon be consumed with wrath.

The future tense denotes an action that has not yet taken place.

The future perfect is less common. Its other name the future in the past helps explain its use: it shows that of two future actions, one will clearly happen before the other.

1. It is claimed that by the time the new law is implemented, tens of thousands of criminals will have escaped justice.
2. It is thought that the hunt will be delayed until late summer, by which time protest groups will have fully organized themselves.

Other Assorted Topics

It is important that you always be aware what tense you are writing in, because your tense should stay consistent unless you are deliberately shifting from one tense to another, like when a character using a present tense narrative has a flashback to previous events or in conversation. When proofreading, make sure to check your tenses, you should not have random shifts, they should be purposeful.

Voice
Sentences in English can be written in either the active or passive voice. The active voice is preferable and more effective for most uses, and so you should write mostly, if not totally in the active voice. You might use the passive voice in a dialog (where such expression is appropriate to the character) or in official news or scientific reports where the subject is deliberately being de-emphasised or removed altogether because of the unbiased nature of the writing, because it does not matter who did the action, or because the speaker is trying to minimise responsibility for the action.

For example, active voice sentences include:

1. The cat ate the fish.
2. Yesterday the President made the announcement that there would be petrol rationing.

Passive voice examples:

1. The fish was eaten by the cat.
2. The reacting agent was added to the solution.
3. The announcement that there would be petrol rationing was made yesterday.

As you can see, the use of the passive or voice changes the sentence structure around. The object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the sentence in the passive voice. The subject of the sentence in the active voice has become the agent of the sentence in the passive voice, if it is needed. The basic meaning of a passive sentence should not be any different from the meaning of the active sentence but it can change the effect of the sentence, as you can see from the example above.

Mood
A verb not only has two aspects/voices, but also two moods. The technical terms for these moods are indicative and subjunctive. The indicative is the mood that is used most often - the majority of this course is written in the indicative mood. Unlike French, or Latin for example, English does not use the subjunctive mood to a large extent. In fact, it is a nearly obsolete form in the English language. However, there are certain cases where a subjunctive is used, and it is well to know which these cases are. Note the following:

1. What would you do if you were rich?
2. I would like to look at that picture.
3. I wouldn't do that if I were you.
4. I shouldn't think that that was wise.
5. I might go out tomorrow.

Basically, the subjunctive mood describes possible situations, wishes, or things that haven't happened yet and may not happen. Unlike in some other languages, the construction is not extremely different from other sentences with helping verbs, so it shouldn't cause you much trouble.