[Linguists’ Forum] Maintaining Tense Consistency for an Impactful writing, By Lateef Kugbayi, PhD

One of the factors by which the world rates virtuous individuals is the consistency in their behaviour over time. Incidentally, consistency is not limited to humans and their behaviour. It is also central to good writing. This type of writing is characterised by sentences and paragraphs that are interconnected and free of confusing shifts, either in tense, number or person. Consistency in writing on the level of tense involves a smooth transition of thoughts and actions within a sentence, from one sentence to another in a paragraph or from one paragraph to another without shifting from one form of the tense to another.
Tenses show when actions take place in grammatical constructions. They are the forms of the verb that are used to denote the variations of time when actions or states of being occur. Tenses are of two major categories:

i. Present Tense: The action takes place in the present time, e.g., “Surveyors urge government to leverage geospatial intelligence.”

ii. Past Tense: The action took place in the past time, e.g., “Surveyors urged government to leverage geospatial intelligence.”
Based on their forms, tenses are used for specific purposes. Writers employ the present tense to convey habitual actions (e.g., “I brush my teeth every day”), facts/universal truths (e.g., “The sun sets in the west”), activities in movies, plays or personal opinions. Past tenses, on the other hand, are suitable for narratives and past events. To write a captivating essay, students preparing for WASSCE, NECO and IELTS are encouraged to stick to either the present tense or past tense at a time. It will be wrong for the candidates to switch from one tense form to another within a sentence/paragraph if the timing of the action in the sentence/paragraph does not require such a switch. Therefore, actions that occur (or occurred) in a sentence at the same time should be in the same tense. If one shifts from one tense to another without a justifiable reason, the grammar of the text will be incorrect and will generate confusion and distraction.
Let us consider the following sentences.
i. When Uche “got” home last week, he “sweeps” his room (inconsistent).
ii. When Uche “got” home last week, he “swept” his room (consistent).
iii. Yesterday, my mother “asked” me “are” you tired (inconsistent).
iv. Yesterday, my mother” asked” me if I “was” tired (consistent).
v. The director “had thought” of travelling abroad before he “meets” the governor (inconsistent).
vi. The director “had thought” of travelling abroad before he “met” the governor (consistent).
vii. The train “has left” before Tolu “got” to the station (inconsistent).
viii. The train “had left” before Tolu “got” to the station (consistent).
ix. If Aisha “was| told that the man “is” a thief, she “would have avoided” him (inconsistent).
x. If Aisha “had been told” that the man “was” a thief, she “would have avoided” him (consistent).

Consistency in tense choices is exemplified in the following excerpts from Achebe’s (1983, p. 1) “The Trouble with Nigeria.”

The trouble with Nigeria “is” (present tense) simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There “is” (present tense) nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There “is” (present tense) nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything – personal opinion.

The Nigerian problem “is” (present tense) the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example, which “are” (present tense) the hallmarks of true leadership – habitual.

On the morning after Murtala Muhammed “seized” (past tense) power in July 1975, public servants in Lagos “were” (past tense) found on seat at seven-thirty in the morning. Even the . . . traffic that “had” (past tense) defeated every solution and defied every regime “vanished” (past tense) overnight from the streets.

Discussion on consistency in writing will continue in the subsequent episodes, where attention will be given to number and person.

Lateef Iyanda Kugbayi, PhD
Senior Lecturer
Department of English Language
Zamfara State University
Talata Mafara
[email protected]/+2347032985052