A Little Red Ink: verb tenses

Happy National Grammar Day, peoples. Let's get our Grammar Fix(ed)!

If you missed the bird's-eye view of verbs, check it out here. Today, we're going to home in on the simple forms of a verb.

The simple form indicates that an action occurs and usually implies that it wasn't repeated.

I choked on frozen Reese's pieces once.

Erynn stared in numb disbelief.

Now, we remember.

We joke.

But she will perform the Heimlich next time. Or else.

Or else what? Maybe the story will end badly. #SadTimes

Let's move on.

Every verb has five principle parts. I'll give a shout out to Kristen Brandsema Lowery and use "sprinkle" and "fall" as examples.

Infinitive: to sprinkle, to fall

Present: sprinkle(s), fall(s)

Past: sprinkled, fell

Present participle: sprinkling, falling

Past participle: sprinkled, fallen

These five parts are used as building blocks for verbs in the English language. In many other languages, if a verb changes from singular to plural, or from first person to third, or from present to future perfect, prefixes and suffixes are added. The verbs themselves get longer.

In English, we like to make the WHOLE sentence longer. So how does this affect our writing? (C'mon. I'm an editor. You know I have an ulterior motive).

Listen, it takes effort to keep sentences tight. Tossing in a helping verb here and there is as easy as breathing. We're often careless. It's cutting back that challenges us.

Here's an important rule: As much as your story will allow, stick to the simple forms. They're uncomplicated, concise.

So quickly, the basics:

For all simple forms, you use either the present or the past principle part.

SIMPLE PAST: past

Kristen sprinkled cinnamon on her hot cocoa.

I fell on the ice. #NotReally

SIMPLE PRESENT: present (See how easy these are?)

Freezing rain sprinkles the window sill and glazes everything I can see.

It seems like I fall once every year. #SoFarSoGood #MiraclesHappen

SIMPLE FUTURE: "will" + present

Boyfriend-Who-Is-My-Husband will sprinkle salt on the sidewalk, but I'm pretty sure I'll fall anyway. #Seriously

GIFSoup

In fiction, most stories are told in the past tense, whether they're in first person or third person. But there's still one thing I see too often.

Simple past plus the infinitive. I didn't start to choke. I choked.

That grizzly doesn't begin to slip. He busts it. #FullRecovery

Though they exist, times when it's necessary to show something starting to happen are rare. Always look for ways to tighten the verbiage when you see those wind-ups.

Now...tell me some one-sentence stories in the comments. Use simple forms only.

One last CRUCIAL thing: Do NOT miss next week's Spelunking Speculative Fiction post from Susan Kaye Quinn, rocket scientist and indie author phenom just in time for her new release (on sale even now for $0.99). She'll give us the lowdown on worldbuilding in The Legacy Human (Singularity #1).

Thanks to Stuart Miles and allesmist for the images.

Get your grammar fix(ed) in a minute or less. For the next four Grammar posts (tucked in between our Spelunking Speculative Fiction posts), we're gonna get down and dirty with verb tenses.

Why? Because it's important to writing. Writing comes across as weak if your characters are only BEING instead of doing. Or if they're THINKING about their next plan of action. Honestly, even if they're STARTING to get to it.

They need to do it. Act.

Nobody wants to read about the windup. They want to watch the pitch. They want to trace the arc of the bat on the swing and the follow-through. See the ball rocket through the blue, clear the fence.

Is the windup important? Of course. But that doesn't mean it needs to own the page.

It gets a mention. It's the setup.

So let's figure out how to master the verb tenses. When we talk about verb tenses, we're actually discussing two different things:

tense and form

I'll give you the bird's-eye view today, and then over the next four Get Your Grammar Fix(ed) posts, we'll land on theforms one at a time and take a look around.

We'll see how it applies to writing.

So hop on the back of this Middle Earth eagle with me, and let's get up there. See what's what.

(Yeah, that's a cool pic. I'll let you pause for a second.)

Okay. There are three verb tenses, and I think they require zero explanation. I'm sure you'll agree.

present

past

future

For each one of those tenses, there are four options to express the action. Each form implies something different.

simple

perfect

progressive

perfect-progressive

SIMPLE. The action happens (or doesn't, if you toss in "not"). Once. That's it.

Beat, Quinn sank into the chair.

PERFECT. The action already happened, before the time referenced in the rest of the sentence or paragraph.

Sandy didn't give a rip how tired he was. She had waited hours for news.

PROGRESSIVE. This is used when you need to indicate that the action continues during the given time frame.

"So," she said. "Spit it out. I'm listening."

PERFECT-PROGRESSIVE. Not as common, this form combines the perfect and the progressive forms. The action was happening continuously (or used to happen) before the time frame in the rest of the scene. If you write fiction, you better have a good reason to utilize this baby. It's cumbersome.

Quinn rolled his eyes.

"Don't. Don't do that. While you've been out there in the thick of this, I've had to sit here and wonder. My mind has been creating the worst possible scenarios. You need to fill me in."

Got it? These verb tenses and forms all get combined, and you use the combos to communicate exactly what you intend. In the weeks ahead, we'll discuss which work the best in fiction, and we'll talk about when the others could be argued as necessary.

But in general, it's best to keep it simple.

Here are all 12 tense/form combos in all their glory:

simple present

simple past

simple future

present perfect

past perfect

future perfect

present progressive

past progressive

future progressive

present perfect progressive