Tenses
In competitive exams like banking and SSC, understanding tenses is crucial for tackling both grammar questions and reading comprehension. Here’s an overview of tenses that is relevant for these exams:
- Present Tense
- Simple Present: Describes habitual actions or general truths.
- Example: She writes every day.
- Present Continuous: Describes actions happening right now or ongoing actions.
- Example: She is writing a letter.
- Present Perfect: Describes actions that have been completed recently or have relevance to the present.
- Example: She has written three letters today.
- Present Perfect Continuous: Describes actions that started in the past and are still continuing or have recently stopped.
- Example: She has been writing letters for two hours.
- Past Tense
- Simple Past: Describes actions that happened and were completed in the past.
- Example: She wrote a letter yesterday.
- Past Continuous: Describes actions that were ongoing in the past.
- Example: She was writing a letter when the phone rang.
- Past Perfect: Describes actions that were completed before another action in the past.
- Example: She had written the letter before the meeting started.
- Past Perfect Continuous: Describes actions that were ongoing up to a point in the past.
- Example: She had been writing letters for two hours before the meeting.
- Future Tense
- Simple Future: Describes actions that will happen in the future.
- Example: She will write a letter tomorrow.
- Future Continuous: Describes actions that will be ongoing at a specific point in the future.
- Example: She will be writing a letter at 5 PM.
- Future Perfect: Describes actions that will be completed before a specific time in the future.
- Example: She will have written the letter by tomorrow.
- Future Perfect Continuous: Describes actions that will be ongoing up to a specific point in the future.
- Example: She will have been writing letters for two hours by the time the meeting starts.
Usage Tips:
- Context Matters: Understand the context of the sentence or passage to determine which tense is appropriate.
- Consistency: Ensure that tenses are consistent within sentences and paragraphs to avoid confusion.
- Signal Words: Look for signal words or phrases (e.g., yesterday, now, will) that indicate the tense.
Detailed Usage and Test Focus
- Present Tense
- Simple Present
- Usage: General truths, habitual actions, and instructions.
- Test Focus: Sentence completion, error detection, and transformation.
- Example: The sun rises in the east.
- Present Continuous
- Usage: Actions happening at the moment of speaking, future plans.
- Test Focus: Identifying correct forms, tense agreement in context.
- Example: She is studying for her exams.
- Present Perfect
- Usage: Actions completed at an unspecified time, relevance to the present.
- Test Focus: Error correction, transformation exercises.
- Example: He has visited Paris.
- Present Perfect Continuous
- Usage: Actions that began in the past and are still continuing or have recently finished.
- Test Focus: Completing sentences, error detection.
- Example: They have been working here for five years.
- Past Tense
- Simple Past
- Usage: Actions completed at a specific time in the past.
- Test Focus: Identifying correct verb forms, context clues.
- Example: She wrote a letter last week.
- Past Continuous
- Usage: Ongoing actions interrupted by another action, background scenes.
- Test Focus: Combining actions, using past continuous with simple past.
- Example: I was watching TV when she called.
- Past Perfect
- Usage: Actions completed before another past action or time.
- Test Focus: Sequencing events, understanding timeline.
- Example: By the time we arrived, the movie had started.
- Past Perfect Continuous
- Usage: Ongoing actions up to a specific time in the past.
- Test Focus: Differentiating between past perfect and past perfect continuous.
- Example: She had been reading for hours when he arrived.
- Future Tense
- Simple Future
- Usage: Actions that will occur in the future.
- Test Focus: Correct future forms, planning statements.
- Example: They will finish the project next month.
- Future Continuous
- Usage: Actions that will be ongoing at a future point in time.
- Test Focus: Future plans, concurrent actions.
- Example: I will be attending the conference next week.
- Future Perfect
- Usage: Actions that will be completed before a specified future time.
- Test Focus: Understanding future deadlines and completions.
- Example: By next year, they will have completed the construction.
- Future Perfect Continuous
- Usage: Ongoing actions that will continue up to a point in the future.
- Test Focus: Long-term projections, future continuations.
- Example: By the time you arrive, I will have been waiting for an hour.
Test Strategies
- Practice Sentence Correction: Work on exercises where you correct errors in tense usage.
- Contextual Understanding: Read passages and identify tense shifts to understand how they affect meaning.
- Error Identification: Focus on spotting incorrect tense usage in given sentences.
Here are some examples of tense-related questions that you might encounter in competitive exams like banking and SSC:
- Sentence Correction
Example: Identify the error in the following sentence:
- “She has been working here since two years and she is working on a new project now.”
Solution:
- The error is in “has been working here since two years.” The correct expression is “for two years” rather than “since two years.”
- Corrected sentence: “She has been working here for two years and she is working on a new project now.”
- Fill in the Blanks
Example: Choose the correct tense to fill in the blanks:
- “By the time he arrives, we ______ (complete) the report.”
Solution:
- The correct answer is “will have completed.” This is because the action (completing the report) will be finished before another action in the future (his arrival).
- Correct sentence: “By the time he arrives, we will have completed the report.”
- Sentence Transformation
Example: Transform the following sentence into the specified tense:
- Original sentence: “I read the book yesterday.”
- Change to Present Perfect Tense.
Solution:
- The transformed sentence is: “I have read the book.”
- Error Detection
Example: Find the incorrect part in the sentence:
- “She will be finishing the project by next month if she will work hard.”
Solution:
- The error is in “if she will work hard.” In conditional sentences, the simple present tense is used after “if” in the second clause.
- Corrected sentence: “She will be finishing the project by next month if she works hard.”
- Reading Comprehension
Example: Identify the tense used in the following sentence from a passage:
- “The company had been expanding rapidly before the economic downturn hit.”
Solution:
- The tense used here is Past Perfect Continuous. It indicates an ongoing action that was happening before another past event (the economic downturn).
- Verb Form Selection
Example: Choose the correct verb form to complete the sentence:
- “If he ______ (study) harder, he would have passed the exam.”
Solution:
- The correct verb form is “had studied,” which is used in the third conditional to express a hypothetical situation in the past.
- Correct sentence: “If he had studied harder, he would have passed the exam.”
