Verb Tense Consistency
📋 What it is
Keep the same tense within a passage unless the time truly changes; don’t drift between past and present.
🗣️ Coach says
If a story is in the past, keep it in the past. BOLT starts in past tense then slips into present — “She walked in and sees the cake.” Catch the tense that jumps.
🧠 Memory hook
Pick a time and stay there. Past → past. Present → present. No jumping.
😂 Giggle
Why don't verbs and subjects ever argue?
They learned to agree!
😲 Whoa!
Some languages have a dozen tenses; others have none and rely on time words like "yesterday" instead.
🖍️ Grade BOLT-3000's verb tense.
You're the teacher — mark BOLT-3000's work, then reveal how you did. (Grading a robot: all the skill, none of the sting.)
BOLT wrote: “He opened the door and runs outside.”
✗ Needs a fix — tense jump; keep it past: “He opened the door and RAN outside.”
Both verbs should share the same tense (past): opened → ran.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Write two past-tense sentences in a row and check no verb slips to present.