Bill Situ
English and ESL Instructor
In English, tenses indicate the time or state of a particular action. It is always important to always use proper tenses because they help the reader understand what happens at a particular time.
The English language has 12 different tenses in total. The two most common ones are the past and present tenses:
I live in Vancouver. (Present tense)
I lived in Vancouver. (Past tense)
The meanings of these tenses are seemingly very self-explanatory, yet many students commonly misuse these tenses in academic writing assignments.
Whenever writing about a historical event or describing any past action, always use the past tense:
The Second World War began in 1939 and ended in 1945.
The high temperatures caused the pressure in the container to increase.
On the other hand, when describing events in a fictional work (e.g. a book or a film) or quoting from one, verbs should be in the present tense:
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities opens with the line, "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times."
The English language has 12 different tenses in total. The two most common ones are the past and present tenses:
I live in Vancouver. (Present tense)
I lived in Vancouver. (Past tense)
The meanings of these tenses are seemingly very self-explanatory, yet many students commonly misuse these tenses in academic writing assignments.
Whenever writing about a historical event or describing any past action, always use the past tense:
The Second World War began in 1939 and ended in 1945.
The high temperatures caused the pressure in the container to increase.
On the other hand, when describing events in a fictional work (e.g. a book or a film) or quoting from one, verbs should be in the present tense:
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities opens with the line, "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times."
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