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Verb forms

Lisa Chen

Lisa Chen

7 min read

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Study Guide Overview

This study guide covers verb forms for the SAT, focusing on verb tenses and subject-verb agreement. It explains simple, perfect, and progressive tenses, as well as tense consistency and special cases like conditional sentences and literary analysis. The guide also details subject-verb agreement rules for basic, compound, and indefinite pronoun subjects, plus collective nouns. Finally, it provides practice questions and exam tips for the SAT Reading & Writing section.

Ace Your SAT Reading & Writing: Verb Forms - The Ultimate Guide πŸš€

Hey there! Feeling a bit stressed about verb forms on the SAT? No worries, we've got you covered. This guide is designed to make sure you're totally confident with verb tenses and subject-verb agreement. Let's jump right in!

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Verb Tenses: Your Key to Clarity πŸ”‘

Verb tenses are all about showing when an action happens. Getting these right makes your writing super clear and precise. Here’s a breakdown:

Simple Tenses

Key Concept

Simple tenses are the foundation. They're used for habitual actions, general truths, and completed actions.

  • Simple Present:
    • Habitual actions, general truths, current states.
    • Base form of the verb (with -s/-es for third-person singular).
    • Example: She walks to work every day.
  • Simple Past:
    • Completed actions in the past.
    • Regular verbs add -ed; irregular verbs have unique forms.
    • Example: They visited Paris last summer.
  • Simple Future:
    • Actions that will happen in the future.
    • Formed with "will" or "shall" + base verb.
    • Example: We will attend the conference next week.

Perfect Tenses

Quick Fact

Perfect tenses link past actions to a reference point, often the present or another past action.

  • Present Perfect:
    • Actions from the past continuing to the present or recently completed.
    • Formed with "has" or "have" + past participle.
    • Example: She has lived in New York for ten years.
  • Past Perfect:
    • Actions completed before another past action.
    • Formed with "had" + past participle.
    • Example: By the time I arrived, the movie had already started.
  • Future Perfect:
    • Actions that will be completed before a future time.
    • Formed with "will have" or "shall have" + past participle.
    • Example: By next month, I will have finished my thesis.

Progressive Tenses

Memory Aid

Think of progressive tenses as sh...

Question 1 of 12

Every morning, the sun ______ in the east. β˜€οΈ

is rising

rises

rose

will rise