7The clerk wisely never dates anyone from work. You can eliminate the vague pronoun which
in several different ways. Another possible correction: The clerk’s policy never to date anyone
from work is wise.
8The clerk quotes poetry because she’s hoping to become a literary critic; Jeffrey majored in
literary criticism in college, so in theory he is a good match for her. In reality, they would hit
the divorce court within a month, but the problem with the original sentence is the pronoun,
not Jeffrey’s romance. In the original sentence it refers to nothing. Jeffrey didn’t major in literary
critic (the expression in the original); he majored in literary criticism, an expression that
replaces it in the corrected sentence.
9In the original sentence, which refers to the fact that the day passed without incident. The pro-
noun can’t replace an entire sentence. One possible fix: “The fact that the day passed . . . was a
great relief to me.”
0One what? The pronoun has no noun to refer to, just the verb eating. Reword to add some food
(“. . . saw me eating an ice cream cone”) and the one will make sense.
!The pronoun everyone is singular, so it must be paired with his or her, not their.
@The pronoun this needs one noun to replace, not a whole sentence. Eliminate the pronoun with
something like “The lunch packs were a . . . at me.”
Mr. Levi Martin
Associate Professor, English 103
Field Trip Report, 1/18/12
I left school at 10:03 a.m. with 45 freshmen, all of whom were excited about
our visit to Adventure Land. The day passed without incident, which was a
great relief to me. I sat in the Adventure Land Bar and Grille for five hours
while the youngsters visited Space Camp, Pirates’ Mountain, and other
attractions that are overrated but popular. The group saw me eating and said
they wanted one too, but I replied that everyone had their his or her
school-issued lunch. This was a disappointment, and several students threw
them at me. We got on one of the vans that was were overdue for mainte-
nance. The motor whirred loudly, and it scared the van driver. We drove to
Makoski Brake and Wheel Repairs because the driver said their its exper-
tise was what we needed. Makoski is also the only one of the many repair
shops on Route 9 that take takes credit cards, which was helpful because I
had spent all my money in the Adventure Land Bar and Grille.
16
36
66
26
46
5
6
76
96
86
0
7
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#In the original, the pronoun them refers to nothing. Add “lunch packs” or “sandwiches” and
you’re in business.
$The sentence should read “one of the vans that were,” not “one of the vans that was.” The pro-
noun that is a stand-in for vans.
%What does it mean? The motor didn’t scare the driver; the whirring sound scared him. But it
should replace a noun. Fix this problem by saying that “the driver was scared” or a similar
statement.
^Their shouldn’t refer to a company. Try its.
&This sentence should say that it was “the only one of the many that takes.” When you get into
“only one of ____” territory, you know that the pronoun is singular and needs a singular verb.
*What does which mean? The fact that the repair shop takes credit cards! The pronoun can’t
replace all those words. Rewrite to eliminate the pronoun with something like “Makoski’s
acceptance of credit cards was helpful because. . . .”
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Chapter 12
Traveling in Time: Tricky
Verb-Tense Situations
In This Chapter
䊳Choosing the proper tense to summarize speech
䊳Expressing unchangeable facts in the correct verb tense
䊳Putting events in order with verbals
I’ve always been attracted to sci-fi movies in which the heroes move around through the
millennia. I probably like fiddling with verb tense for exactly the same reason; standard
English verbs allow writers and speakers to time travel. You may not have a chief engineer
to warn you when the motor’s about to overheat, but you do have this chapter, which allows
you to practice some tricky verb-tense situations. For example, did Arthur say that he has
or had a cold? Did or does Mars qualify as a planet? And what effect do verbals — hybrid
forms that are half verb, half another part of speech — have on the timing of events in a sen-
tence? If you’re sure of all these issues, drop the book and play a round of miniature golf. If
you’re not completely certain, try your hand at these exercises.
Telling Tales of the Past
Humans love to gossip, so I’m betting that your lunch table is filled with a ton of stories,
many of which include summaries of what others have said or written. Because you’re
telling (actually, retelling) something that already happened, your base of operations is past
tense. Note the past-tense verbs in italics:
She caught Arthur with Stella, but he told her that he was only tying Stella’s bow tie and
not nibbling her neck. Then she said that Arthur brought her a box of candy with a note
saying that no one else had eyes like hers.
What’s wrong with the preceding example? Apart from the fact that Arthur was indeed nib-
bling Stella’s neck, nothing. The verb tenses are all in the past because that’s where a sum-
mary of speech resides. So even if she still has incomparable eyes, in this paragraph the
verb had is better. (One important exception to the stay-in-past-tense-for-speech-summary
rule is explained in the next section, “The Unchanging Universe: When You’re Stuck in the
Present.”)
A common error is to switch from one tense to another with no valid reason. I often hear
statements such as this one (the verbs are italicized):
So she sat home and waited for the phone to ring. He finally called. Then he says that the
big dance is a waste of time and they will skip the whole thing!
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Penalty box. If she sat and waited until he called (all past-tense verbs), the next three
verbs (says, is, and will skip) should be in past tense also (said, was, and would skip).
Take a crack at selecting the right verb from the choices in parentheses — circle your
answer. Just to be sure you’re paying attention, I sneak in a few verbs that aren’t sum-
mary of speech and therefore shouldn’t be in past tense.
Q. During yesterday’s tryouts for the new reality show, Grammarian Idol Factor, Roberta
(tells/told/will tell) the producer that she (likes/liked/will like) selecting pronouns
while dangling 200 feet above the ground.
A. told, liked. The first answer is easy. If the tryouts were yesterday, the fact that Roberta
lied to the producer (she actually hates pronouns) has to be in past tense. Told is past
tense. The second part is trickier. She may always “like” selecting pronouns, but in sum-
mary of speech, past tense is the way to go (with one exception, which I note in the next
section of this chapter).
1. The director of the show, Grammarian Idol Factor, explained to the candidates that he
(has/had/will have) to select a maximum of 30 contestants.
2. Most of the contestants eagerly replied that they (want/wanted/would want) to make
the final 30.
3. Roberta, who (likes/like/had liked) to play hard to get, screamed at the director that he
(doesn’t/didn’t) have the faintest idea how to select the best applicants.
4. One who didn’t make the cut, Michael Hooper, told me that Roberta (is/was/had been)
the clear winner of the first three challenges — the noun toss, the pronoun shuffle, and
the verb race.
5. Michael also whispered something surprising: Roberta (fails/failed/had failed) the
psychological screening.
6. Last week when the psychologist (asks/asked) Roberta her feelings about various parts of
speech, Roberta said that the linking verbs (do/did) present a problem.
7. “Why (don’t/didn’t) you like linking verbs?” continued the psychologist.
8. Roberta explained that any form of the verb to be (annoys/annoyed) her.
9. “I (try/tried) to avoid any sentence with that sort of verb,” added Roberta.
10. She went on to say that adjectives (are/were/had been) her favorite part of speech.
11. The psychologist later reported that he (is/was/had been) worried about Roberta’s reac-
tion to punctuation.
12. Roberta apparently said that commas (are/were/had been) “out to get her.”
13. She added that exclamation points (threaten/threatened/had threatened) her also.
14. The psychologist complained that quotation marks (hem/hemmed) him in and (make/
made) him feel trapped.
15. Roberta and the psychologist disagreed, however, when Roberta said that the semicolon
(is/was) the best punctuation mark.
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16. The director said that he (doesn’t/didn’t) know what to make of Roberta’s punctuation
obsession.
17. He declared that she (is/was) too unstable for a show that relies heavily on question marks.
18. The assistant director, on the other hand, whispered that Roberta (is/was) faking a punc-
tuation phobia just to attract attention.
19. The camera operator added that he (knows/knew) many people who (are/were) truly ter-
rified by commas and apostrophes.
20. In the final report on Roberta, the psychologist mentioned that she (is/was/had been)
afraid of punctuation because of a childhood attack by a mad copy editor.
The Unchanging Universe: When
You’re Stuck in the Present
Verb tenses express the march of time: past, present, and future actions. But some things
don’t march; they stay in one, unchanging state forever. When you talk about these things,
present tense is the only one that makes sense, no matter what else is going on in the sen-
tence. Take a look at these examples:
Wrong: Marty told me that the earth was a planet.
Why it is wrong: What is the earth now, a bagel? The unchanging fact, that the
earth is a planet, must be expressed in present tense, despite the fact that all
other summarized speech should be in past tense. (See “Telling Tales of the Past,”
the previous section in this chapter, for more information.)
Right: Marty told me that the earth is a planet.
Choose the correct verb from the parentheses in the following sentences. To complicate your
life, I mixed “eternal truths” with changeable information. The eternal truths get present
tense no matter what, but with the other stuff . . . you’re on your own.
Q. Although Marty knew that 10 plus 10 (equals/equaled) 20, she wrote “15” on the test as a
gesture of defiance.
A. equals. In our number system (I’m not sure what they do on Mars), 10 added to 10
makes 20. No change is possible, so present tense is what you want here.
21. Marty’s job as a schoolteacher won’t last very long if she keeps telling her class that each
molecule of water (has/had) three oxygen atoms.
22. Science has never been Marty’s best subject, but she did explain that water (covers/
covered) nine tenths of the planet.
23. I gently confronted her with the fact that land (makes/made) up about a quarter of the
earth’s surface.
24. Marty sniffed and said that she (has/had) a cold and couldn’t think about the earth
anyway.
25. We went out for a snack (bagels and cream cheese), and Marty told me that cheese (is/
was) a dairy product.
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