The right tense follows the time the writer is talking about, and the clues are in the passage. Read the sentence before and after the gap, find the time clue, then choose.
This lesson opens the cloze and language use chapter. The next lesson covers selecting connectors that fit the relationship.
Which clue points to which tense?
Use this table as a first guess, then check it against the sentence.
| Clue in the passage | Likely tense | Example |
|---|---|---|
| last week, yesterday, in 2019 | past simple | We visited the centre. |
| since, for, already, yet, so far | present perfect | The club has collected ten bags. |
| by the time, before, when (earlier event) | past perfect | The bus had left. |
| every day, always, usually | present simple | The guide explains the process. |
| next month, tomorrow, soon | will or going to | The school will install bins. |
Worked example: a short passage
Fill each gap with the correct form of the verb in brackets.
“Last Saturday, our class (1) ___ (visit) a recycling centre. At the centre, the workers (2) ___ (sort) glass by colour every day. By the time we left, we (3) ___ (learn) how bottles are cleaned. Next month, our school (4) ___ (install) three new bins.”
- visited: “Last Saturday” names a finished time.
- sort: “every day” describes a routine, so present simple.
- had learned: the learning came before the leaving, so past perfect.
- will install: “Next month” points forward.
If gap (2) used “sorted”, the sentence would describe one finished event, not a daily habit. The time words “every day” decide it.
The mistake that costs marks
One slip is to change tense partway through a paragraph when the time has not changed. Compare the two versions.
| Version | Text |
|---|---|
| Wrong | The guide showed us the machine and then explains how it works. |
| Right | The guide showed us the machine and then explained how it worked. |
Both events happened at the same past time, so both verbs stay in the past. Reread each paragraph and look for verbs that jump tense for no reason.
Check yourself
Choose the correct form: “When I reached the station, the train ___ (leave).”
Answer
The answer is had left.
There are two past events. The train leaving happened first, and arriving at the station happened second. The earlier event takes the past perfect.
“When I reached the station, the train left” would mean the train left just as I arrived.
What to study next
Continue with selecting connectors that fit the relationship, where the clue is the relationship between two ideas. The English writing task checklist has a tense check you can use on your own paragraphs.
If you would like a teacher to hear your reasoning and correct the weak clue, see online one-to-one English tuition.