SAT Question: Why So (Past Perfect Simple) Tense?

Carrie writes:

OMG, Snarky. Why do we need so many verb tenses? They are so confusing! In today's official SAT question, I didn't see any error so I chose Choice E. But the correct answer is Choice A and the explanation has to do with tenses. Can you please explain?

Sure thing. Here's today's SAT question:

The following sentence contains either a single error or no error at all. If the sentence contains an error, select the one underlined part that must be changed to make the sentence correct. If the sentence contains no error, select choice E.   

Although Mrs. Griffin has not previously been very enthusiastic about preparing her students for the annual piano competition, she put in extra time this year to ensure that her star pupil would win first prize. 

As Carrie says, the correct answer is Choice A. The first clause is currently in the present perfect simple tense, when it should be in the past perfect simple.

So why do we need so many different tenses? We use tenses to indicate when the action (verb) is taking place. Is it happening right now? In the future? In the past? But as Carrie points out, it's more complex than that. For example, in the past tense, did the action just happen? Did it happen a long time ago? Has it been happening for a while and is still ongoing? In today's SAT question, the sentence contains two actions that both take place in the past.

First we have a dependent clause (can not stand alone as a sentence): Although Mrs. Griffin has not previously been very enthusiastic about preparing her students for the annual piano competition

After the comma, we have an independent clause (can stand alone as a sentence): She put in extra time this year to ensure that her star pupil would win first prize.

Luckily, this sentence is loaded with signal words to help us make sense of what's happening and when. The preposition although sets up the expectation of a change or shift, while previously and this year indicate a time marker. There is a difference between how Mrs. Griffin behaved before this year (was not enthusiastic) compared to her behavior this year (put in extra time).

In both clauses, the main action is in the past tense, but the writer wants to stress that the action in the first clause happened first. That requires the present perfect simple or the past perfect simple.

Quick rules:

• Use the present perfect simple to indicate action that is still ongoing or was completed very recently. Subject + present of 'have' + past participle. Sophia has been happy with her grades, and is continuing to work with a tutor to keep them up. [The notion 'to be happy' is still ongoing.]
• Use the past perfect simple to indicate that action has been completed, is over, finito.  Subject + simple past of 'have' + past participle. Sophia had been happy with her grades until she tanked the midterm. [The notion 'to be happy' is finished. The signal word 'until' implies a before and after.]

Correction:

• Although Mrs. Griffin had not previously been very enthusiastic about preparing her students for the annual piano competition, she put in extra time this year to ensure that her star pupil would win first prize. [The notion 'to not be enthusiastic' is completed.]

More practice:

• Mr. Cooper finished telling the class about Friday's test. Simple past.
• Mr. Cooper has finished telling the class about Friday's test and will now move on to the homework questions. Present perfect simple. [The action, 'to finish', was completed very recently.]
• Mr. Cooper had just finished telling the class about Friday's exam, when Jason asked if there were any upcoming tests. Past perfect simple. [Both actions are in the past, but which came first? Mr. Cooper told the class about Friday's test before Jason asked his question.]

Swam vs. Swum: Who's Afraid of Irregular Verbs?

Carmella writes:

Hi Snarky! My Language Arts teacher is giving extra credit to anyone who can spot a grammar mistake in the news, and I think I've got one. In the San Diego Union-Tribune, there is a story about a man who swam in a local Gatorman race.  

In the fourth paragraph, it says 'he has swam'. I think that's an error. Shouldn't it be 'he has swum'?
 

Mighty impressive, Carmella! You're absolutely right. Many people will insist that there is no such word as swum, but they are wrong.

Swim, swam, swum is similar to shrink, shrank, shrunk; begin, began, begun; drink, drank, drunk; sink, sank, sunk; and a handful of other irregular verbs.

Swum is a participle used in the present perfect and past perfect tenses, to emphasize that an event has either recently been completed (present perfect, with 'have') or completed in the distant past (past perfect, with 'had').

Quick rules:

• Swim is used in the present tense. I swim slower than Michael Phelps.
• Swam is used in the simple past tense. Michael Phelps swam faster than everyone else. [Never: Michael Phelps swum faster than everyone else.]
• Swum is used in the present perfect and past perfect tenses and must be preceded by 'has', 'have', or 'had'. Michael Phelps has just swum in his last Olympics race. [In the present perfect tense, the signal word 'just' tells us that the event happened in the very recent past.]

Correction:

• Kostich, who said he has swum this race “15 or 16 times, I think,” used some furious freestyle stroking at the end of the popular open-water event to beat Tommy Anderson of Jamul by 18 seconds, in one of the closest races in recent history.