Tense, Voice & Narration

Snapshot

• Tenses tell the reader when something happens (past, present, future) and how it unfolds (simple, continuous, perfect, perfect continuous), giving twelve verb forms in all.
• CUET tests them as gap-fills with options, as error spotting, as sentence improvement, and through conditionals, reported speech and "wish" sentences.
• The idea that cracks it: the time marker in the sentence names the tense, and a few well-known rules (finished time, earlier of two pasts, time clauses, conditionals) cover most of the rest.
• Scoring is +5 / −1. Most lost marks come from three confusions: simple past versus present perfect, a missing past perfect, and the wrong form after if.

Part 1 — What a tense really is, and the twelve forms

Written and reviewed by Omveer Thakur, English & Languages faculty at UniDrill (M.A. English, University of Delhi · 9 years teaching). Prepared for the CUET UG English paper.

A tense is a time stamp on a verb. English gives you three times (past, present, future) and four ways of looking at an action (its aspect): as a plain fact, as something in progress, as something completed before a reference point, or as something that has been going on for a while. Three times multiplied by four aspects makes twelve forms.

Each column has a job. Simple states a fact, a habit or a completed event. Continuous shows the action in progress at a moment. Perfect shows completion before a reference point, so it always links two moments. Perfect continuous shows an action that ran up to a point and stresses how long it lasted.

The perfect tenses cause the most errors because they link two time points. The present perfect joins the past to now (I have finished, so it is done as of this moment). The past perfect joins an earlier past to a later past (the film had ended before we arrived). The future perfect joins now to a future deadline (by 2030 they will have built it).

Why it matters. The exam seldom asks "what is the name of this tense?". It gives a sentence with a time clue and checks whether you can match the clue to the form.

Part 2 — The question types CUET uses

Part 3 — The method

Part 4 — Time markers and the tenses they signal

Learning this column is most of the battle: the marker almost always names the tense.

Part 5 — The rules that are tested again and again

Rule 1: simple past versus present perfect. Use the simple past with a finished time (yesterday, in 2019, last year, ago): He came yesterday. Use the present perfect when the time is unfinished or the result matters now (just, already, ever, since, this week): He has just come. A finished-time word breaks the link to now, so has come yesterday is wrong.

Rule 2: since and for. Both need a perfect tense when the action continues to now: I have known him since 2010 or for ten years. I know him since 2010 is wrong. Since is followed by a starting point (a date or event), for by a length.

Rule 3: the earlier of two past actions takes the past perfect: When I reached, the bus had left. Both are in the past, but one happened first.

Rule 4: time clauses refer to the future with the present tense. After when, before, after, as soon as, until, if we use the present, even for the future: I will call you when I reach home (not when I will reach).

Rule 5: stative verbs do not take the continuous. Verbs of state (know, believe, understand, want, like, love, prefer, belong, own, see, hear) stay in the simple form: I have known him for years, not have been knowing.

Rule 6: universal truths stay in the simple present, even in reported speech: The teacher said that the earth revolves round the sun.

Rule 7: unreal situations use a backshifted tense. I wish I knew (unreal present), I wish I had known (unreal past), He speaks as if he knew everything, It is time we left, I would rather you stayed.

Part 6 — Conditionals and reported speech

Two cautions: would does not belong in the if clause (If I would be rich is wrong), and in formal usage the unreal present takes were for all persons (If I were you).

Reported speech moves the tense one step back when the reporting verb is in the past.

Universal truths and facts that are still true do not shift: He said the sun rises in the east.

Part 7 — Irregular verb forms you must know

The past participle (V3) is what follows have, has, had. Using V2 there (had went, has wrote) is a classic error.

Part 8 — Worked examples with the reasoning

Example 1. He ___ (write) the letter already. Already links to now: present perfect. Has written.

Example 2. When I reached the station, the train ___ (leave). Two past actions; leaving came first. Had left.

Example 3. She ___ (read) when the lights went out. A background action was in progress when another interrupted it. Was reading.

Example 4. Water ___ (boil) at 100 degrees Celsius. A general truth stays in the simple present. Boils.

Example 5. I ___ (live) here since 2015. Since with a state continuing to now needs a perfect form. Have lived (or have been living).

Example 6. If I ___ (be) you, I would resign. Unreal present, so the if clause uses the past subjunctive. Were.

Example 7. By next June he ___ (complete) his degree. A deadline in the future with by. Will have completed.

Example 8. Error spotting: She has gone to Mumbai last week. Last week is a finished time. She went to Mumbai last week.

Example 9. I will phone you as soon as I ___ (reach) home. After as soon as, the future is expressed by the present. Reach.

Example 10. He said, "I am tired." Reported with a past reporting verb, am shifts to was. He said that he was tired.

Example 11. Error spotting: I have been knowing him for years. Know is a stative verb. I have known him for years.

Example 12. I wish I ___ (know) the answer. A wish about the unreal present uses the past form. Knew.

Example 13. No sooner ___ (he, reach) the office than the phone rang. No sooner needs the past perfect and inversion. Had he reached.

Example 14. We ___ (wait) for an hour before the bus came. The waiting lasted up to an earlier past point, and duration is stressed. Had been waiting.

Example 15. If he had worked harder, he ___ (pass). Type 3: an unreal past. Would have passed.

Part 9 — Common traps

Part 10 — Rapid-fire practice with answers

Part 11 — A timed routine

In the exam, a tense item should take about 30 seconds. Underline the marker first; if there are two past actions, ask which came first; and never pick an option that puts would in the if clause.

Part 12 — Where this connects

Tenses recur wherever a verb is chosen. The same choices appear in Fill in the Blanks, and the tense errors you learn here are one of the standard checks in Spotting Errors and Sentence Improvement. The prepositions since and for are covered in Prepositions, and the verbs that change meaning with a particle are in Phrasal Verbs.

One-line revision: the time marker names the tense; use the simple past for finished time, the present perfect for since, for, already and just, the past perfect for the earlier of two pasts, and a present form in a time clause.