Tense consistency and verb forms
Tests: 2 of 11 right · Exam: 1 of 4 right · Kind: ★ · Understood: 6 of 15 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72
Lesson 31 of the english course of Mova's primary school, as Mova's small model took its tests: it had read this lesson and the ones before it and learned from their exercises. Each test shows the options in the order the student saw them, its choice, the right answer, the score of every option and why it chose. The lesson itself, sentence by sentence with trees and pragmatics: the lesson in the corpora.
Every question of this lesson and each of its options parsed by Mova, with trees and pragmatics: the lesson's questions in the corpora.
Test 1 · ★ · wrong ✗
Your mate goes "tense is just for maths, innit, like tens and units." What is true?
- 1. Tense is how worried the writer feels — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Tense means how loud you read a word — no support
- 3. Tense means the time a verb points to — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. Tense is the number of words in a sentence — no support
Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 2 · ★ · wrong ✗
★★★ "When we got to the cinema, the film had started." Which happened first?
- 1. Both at the same moment — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Getting to the cinema — no support
- 3. Nothing has happened yet — no support
- 4. The film starting — ✓ the right answer · no support
Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 3 · ★ · wrong ✗
Freya writes a whole story in the present: "I open the door. A fox stares at me." Is that allowed?
- 1. Yes, but only if a fox is in it — ← Mova's choice · score 1
- 2. Yes, a story can be in the present if it stays there — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. No, every story must be in the past tense — no support
- 4. No, the present is only for diaries and texts — no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 1, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 27, line 1: «Every word in a sentence has a job, and the job is its word class. In «The hungry fox quickly ate the cake under the table», fox and cake and table are nouns (…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same circumstance (+1). The right option, 2, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 4 · ★ · wrong ✗
In a cartoon, a robot says "Yesterday I will be fixing the car." What would a grammar teacher say?
- 1. Yesterday needs a past verb: "Yesterday I was fixing the car" — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. Change "yesterday" to "next year ago" — ← Mova's choice · score 7
- 3. Robots may use any tense they like in any sentence they say — no support
- 4. It is correct because it uses -ing — no support
Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 2 with score 7, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 5, line 2: «Every letter has a starting point and a direction. Isla starts her «d» at the bottom and pushes up; her teacher says «start at the top». Many letters, a, d, g,…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «say» (+4); the same doer «teacher» (+3). The right option, 1, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 5 · ★ · wrong ✗
Older cousin, dead dry: "I have ate my tea, now shush." What is the standard form?
- 1. I have eat my tea. — ← Mova's choice · score 7
- 2. I have ated my tea. — no support
- 3. I have eaten my tea. — ✓ the right answer · score 7
- 4. I has eaten my tea. — score 7
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 7, tied with another option at 7 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 28, line 1: «A clause is a group of words with a verb in it. A main clause makes sense on its own: «The dog barked.» A subordinate clause has a verb too, but it leans on a…», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «eat» (+4); the same thing acted on «tea» (+3). The right option, 3, scored 7. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 6 · ★ · right ✓
★★★ Which sentence has an accidental tense slip?
- 1. The dog barked, so we run inside and hid. — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. We have lived here since I was two. — no support
- 3. The dog barks every night, so we keep the window shut. — no support
- 4. I was cold yesterday, but I'm fine today. — no support
Why: Nothing it remembers matched the question, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 7 · ★ · wrong ✗
A lad from Wigan says "Our kid were late again, the muppet." ("Our kid" means my brother or sister.) Which is the standard?
- 1. My brother be late again. — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. My brother is late again yesterday. — no support
- 3. My brother were late again. — no support
- 4. My brother was late again. — ✓ the right answer · no support
Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 8 · ★ · wrong ✗
What would happen if a story jumped tense in every sentence?
- 1. Nothing, because readers ignore verbs — ← Mova's choice · score 2
- 2. The reader would lose track of when things happen — ✓ the right answer · score 2
- 3. The story would become far more exciting and much clearer to follow — no support
- 4. The story would turn into a poem — no support
Why: It took the question to ask what happens next. It chose option 1 with score 2, tied with another option at 2 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 31, line 2: «A story is like a film shot from one seat in the cinema: if you write "I went to the park and I see a dog", the camera jumps from yesterday to now and the read…», reached through what followed the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «reader» (+4). Against it: a different action (counts against) (-2). The right option, 2, scored 2. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 9 · ★ · right ✓
Bella says "'I have seen it' and 'I saw it' mean exactly the same, always." Which is closest to the truth?
- 1. Both are past, but "have seen" links it to now — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. Only "I seen it" is correct — no support
- 3. "I have seen it" is the future — no support
- 4. "I saw it" is wrong in Standard English — no support
Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 10 · ★ · wrong ✗
Nan, chuffed ("chuffed" means pleased): "You've grown since Christmas!" Which tense is "have grown"?
- 1. Simple future — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. Present perfect — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 3. Past progressive — no support
- 4. Present progressive — no support
Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Test 11 · ★ · wrong ✗
★★★ Fill in for the right tense: "While I ___ my homework, the lights went out."
- 1. will do — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. have done — no support
- 3. am doing — no support
- 4. was doing — ✓ the right answer · no support
Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Exam question 1 · formal language · wrong ✗
Identify the sentence in which the tense is consistent throughout.
- 1. I will open the box and found a key. — ← Mova's choice · no support
- 2. I opened the box and find a key. — no support
- 3. I opened the box and found a key. — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. I open the box and found a key. — no support
Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Exam question 2 · formal language · right ✓
Select the form designated the past progressive of the verb "to play" with the subject "I".
- 1. I was playing — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
- 2. I have played — no support
- 3. I am playing — no support
- 4. I played — no support
Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Exam question 3 · formal language · wrong ✗
Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the words "might", "could" and "should"?
- 1. They are adverbs modifying nouns — ← Mova's choice · score 6
- 2. They are modal verbs expressing degrees of certainty or obligation — ✓ the right answer · score 6
- 3. They are tense markers denoting the future in English — no support
- 4. They are conjunctions joining two clauses — score 6
Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 1 with score 6, tied with another option at 6 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 27, line 18: «Words like before and after are prepositions when a noun follows them («before lunch») and adverbs when they stand alone («I'd seen it before»).», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same thing acted on «prepositions» (+2); it fills the role the question asks for (+2); the same doer «words» (+1); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+1). The right option, 2, scored 6. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
Exam question 4 · formal language · wrong ✗
It is given that a speaker says "I were going to the shop". Ascertain the corresponding Standard English form.
- 1. I were went to the shop — ← Mova's choice · score 6
- 2. I be going to the shop — no support
- 3. I was going to the shop — ✓ the right answer · no support
- 4. I am going to the shop yesterday — no support
Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 1 with score 6, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 31, line 5: «Homes and towns have their own verb habits: a Lancashire gran may say "I were going to't shop" ("to't" is "to the"), and that is real dialect with its own rule…», reached through what was said in the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same circumstance (+4); the same property (+2); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+2). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-2). The right option, 3, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics
This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/31-tense-consistency-and-verb-forms/