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>> INSTRUCTOR: Okay, so this is a video about verb tense shifts.
What does that even mean? A verb tense shift occurs when you switch
between the past, present, and future tense in your writing.
Well, how can I tell if I have a verb tense shift?
The best way to start is to take a look at your verbs. Let's do this for a sentence:
"When I opened the door, Laurie just stands there in the pouring rain."
My verbs here are "opened"--which is past tense--and "stands"--which is present.
They don't match. You do have to take a minute here and decide
if this is a logical shift from one time to another or if this an error.
Take a look at this sentence:
"Laurie argues with her boyfriend all the time, so I was not surprised
to find her on my doorstep in the rain."
Well, "argue" is present tense and "was" is past tense, but
this is a logical time shift. So let's go back to our example.
"When I open the door yesterday, Laurie stands there"
Well that doesn't work, so that needs to become
"When I opened the door yesterday,
Laurie just stood there in the pouring rain."
We need it to match. Let's do this with another sentence.
"While he stands at the cracks of Doom, he considered drops the Ring.
Just then, he was attacked by Gollum who knocks him down."
This is a mess, so let's find all of our verbs.
We have "stands" (present tense), "considered" (past tense),
"drops" (that's a mess), "was attacked" (past tense), "knocks" (present).
So let's go with "stands". If we say he stands there, we have "considers dropping",
"is attacked" and "knocks". So those are all present tense.
But what if I don't like that? I wanted to go past tense.
That's fine. Then it becomes "stood", "considered", "dropping" stays the same,
he "was attacked", and Gollum "knocked" him down.
The important thing to remember is that sometimes a verb shift
will be logical. Just watch out for shifts that cause confusion!