The tenses in the English language unnerve many writers, especially the younger ones. They have the tendency to shift tenses for no obvious reasons. At times, the shift infects a particular sentence.

The word 'tense' comes from 'tempus', the Latin word for time. Some languages like Mandarin Chinese don’t have verb tenses but express time in different ways. When writing, it’s important to use the ...

We were sitting in the blind that Wanderobo hunters had built of twigs and branches at the edge of the salt-lick when we heard the truck coming. (Green Hills of Africa, Ernest Hemingway) Hemingway did ...

Some writers like to use the present tense to tell a story in order to give the impression that it is happening right now. In fiction writing the present tense can create a dramatic effect and make ...

It wouldn’t be a Man Booker Prize shortlist without a controversy in the British press, but this year’s furor — launched by one-time Booker judge Philip Hensher — may strike some readers as a bit ...

Writers, over the last decade, have been waxing lyrical about the rise of the present tense in English fiction. But this morning I read something entirely new – for me, at least. I read a manuscript ...

No matter how long you’ve been speaking English, no matter how hard you’ve worked to perfect your grammar, some past tense verbs can stump you. For example, the day after you decide to grin and bear ...