Tense confusion
 | The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (July 2013) |
In grammar, a tense confusion occurs when a writer shifts from the present tense to the past tense (or vice versa).[1][2] For example, in the following example, the change from "saw" (past tense) to "is" (present tense) represents a tense confusion:
Example:
He saw that she is very tall.
It is important to avoid tense confusions because they hurt reader comprehension.[3][4] They are a common grammatical error,[5] especially among beginning writers.[6]
References
- ^ "Verb Tenses ~ Correcting Shifts" (PDF). The Quality Writing Center. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
- ^ "Tense Consistency".
- ^ "Verb Tense Consistency". Retrieved 2013-01-28.
- ^ Verb Tense Consistency. Grammerly.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ "Verb Tense Consistency". CLA Department of English. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
- ^ Mencher, Melvin. "Grammar Exercise 11: Verb Tense Consistency". McGraw Hill. Retrieved 28 January 2013.
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