Melissa Maygrove

This is a continuation of last week's lesson on verb tense. Today we're going to delve a little deeper —make that way deeper —i nto the issue. But, basically, the concept is the same. Verb tense is relative. Pay attention to the tense you're writing and stay true to that according to when the various actions happened in relation to each other. Do not shift from one tense to another if the time frame for each action or state of being is the same . Last week I mentioned basic conjugation, including past participle . For the infinitive 'to play,' that would be has/had played . I've noticed writers seem to make more errors when using past participle — both with regular and irregular verbs . One situation that often leads to an error is combining a contraction with one of these verbs. Let me show you what I mean.

Today, I'm tackling the subject of conjugating verbs. If you're like me, you write more properly than you speak. The problem is: we often hear things that aren't grammatically correct, and then translate them into our writing without realizing it. Conjugating English verbs is fairly simple. Most verbs add -ed to for the past and past participle tense. Let's take the infinitive 'to play' as an example. Now in sentences: Today, I play.  ~  Yesterday, I played.  ~  In the past, I had played. That was easy, right? Problems usually arise when dealing with the pesky verbs that don't follow the rules. Ex: Swim, swam, swum. Let's start with one that many people — even the fairly grammar-conscious — often get get wrong: properly conjugating the infinitive 'to drag.' The present tense is 'drag.' Ex: Drag that chair over there, would you? The past tense is 'drug,' right? Nope. It's 'dragged.' (And don't worry. I'm not ...