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SAT
Unit 11: Lesson 3
Writing: Grammar- Writing: Setting Up Ideas — Video Lesson
- Setting up ideas | Quick guide
- Writing: Strong Support — Video lesson
- Strong support | Quick guide
- Writing: Relevant Information — Video lesson
- Relevant information | Quick guide
- Writing: Sequencing sentences — Video lesson
- Sequencing sentences | Quick guide
- Writing: Transition Words — Video lesson
- Transition words and phrases | Quick guide
- Writing: Transition Sentences — Video Lesson
- Transition sentences | Quick guide
- Writing: Introductions — Video lesson
- Writing: Conclusions — Video lesson
- Introductions and conclusions | Quick guide
- Writing: Interpreting Graphs and Data — Video lesson
- Interpreting graphs and data | Quick guide
- Writing: Precision — Video Lesson
- Precise word choice | Quick guide
- Writing: Concision — Video lesson
- Concision | Quick guide
- Writing: Formal and Informal Language — Video Lesson
- Writing: Formal vs. casual language — Example
- Formal vs. casual language | Quick guide
- Writing: Syntax — Example
- Writing: Sentence Fragments — Video Lesson
- Writing: Sentence Boundaries — Example 1
- Writing: Sentence boundaries — Example 2
- Sentence fragments | Quick guide
- Writing: Subordination and coordination — Example
- Writing: Combining Sentences — Video Lesson
- Linking clauses | Quick guide
- Writing: Parallel Structure — Video lesson
- Writing: Parallel structure — Example
- Parallel structure | Quick guide
- Writing: Modifier Placement — Video Lesson
- Writing: Modifier placement — Example
- Modifier placement | Quick guide
- Writing: Verb Tense and Mood — Video Lesson
- Writing: Shift in verb tense and mood — Example
- Verb tense and mood | Quick guide
- Writing: Pronoun Clarity — Video Lesson
- Writing: Pronoun clarity — Example
- Pronoun clarity | Quick guide
- Writing: Pronoun Agreement — Video Lesson
- Writing: Pronoun-antecedent agreement — Example
- Pronoun-antecedent agreement | Quick guide
- Writing: Possessive determiners — Example 1
- Writing: Possessive determiners — Example 2
- Writing: It’s/Its Confusion — Video Lesson
- Confusion with "its" and "their" | Quick guide
- Writing: Subject-Verb Agreement — Video Lesson
- Writing: Subject-verb agreement — Example
- Subject-verb agreement | Quick guide
- Writing: Noun Agreement — Video Lesson
- Writing: Noun agreement — Basic example
- Noun agreement | Quick guide
- Writing: Frequently Confused Words — Video Lesson
- Writing: Frequently confused words — Example
- Frequently confused words | Quick guide
- Writing: Conventional Expressions — Video Lesson
- Writing: Conventional expression — Example
- Conventional expressions | Quick guide
- Writing: Logical Comparison — Video Lesson
- Writing: Logical comparison — Example
- Logical comparison | Quick guide
- Writing: End-of-sentence punctuation — Example 1
- Writing: End-of-sentence punctuation — Example 2
- Writing: Commas — Video Lesson
- Commas | Quick guide
- Writing: Semicolons — Video Lesson
- Semicolons | Quick guide
- Writing: Colons — Video lesson
- Colons | Quick guide
- Writing: Possessive Pronouns — Example
- Writing: Possessive Nouns — Video Lesson
- Making nouns possessive | Quick guide
- Writing: Items in a series — Example
- Writing: Punctuating Lists — Video Lesson
- Lists and punctuation | Quick guide
- Writing: Nonrestrictive and parenthetical elements — Example
- Writing: Nonessential Elements — Video Lesson
- Nonessential elements | Quick guide
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Writing: Verb Tense and Mood — Video Lesson
David shows you how to approach a Verb Tense question on the SAT Writing and Language test.
Created by David Rheinstrom.
Want to join the conversation?
- Why did you do this to us; we need help.(5 votes)
- Get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head(4 votes)
- does has+verb imply the same thing as had+verb does?(1 vote)
- "Has" is present tense, while "had" is past tense. When you use has + a verb, this is called the perfect tense and is used to describe an action that has occurred before the tense, and that had a result. The sentence "Usnavi has never run a mile" means that Usnavi has never run a mile, at the point of saying so.
Now, for had+verb, this means that you have an action that occurred in the past, but its result and those effects also happened in the past, just a more recent past. It may sound confusing when explained like that, and that's because there isn't much difference between them. The past perfect is used to describe events that occurred in the past, but their result also happened in the past before something else which happens in the present. For example, you could say that "Usnavi had never run a mile, until he signed up for track and field in 9th grade". This means that Usnavi did not run a mile until a moment in the past. After that moment (9th grade), Usnavi would have run miles.
I get that that may be a confusing explanation, please reply to this if I could make it any clearer.(5 votes)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] We are
looking at question 29. Let me go back a sentence or two. This is about Michelangelo's
statue of David in Florence: Michelangelo took on the Giant with zeal and finished the statue in just two years. The statue's form and posture
echoed the proportions of classical Roman sculpture,
but its expressiveness and level of detail has reflected
Renaissance sensibilities. And our choices are all different
forms of that same verb. So we have choice A is no
change, that's has reflected, choice B is reflected, choice C is had reflected, and choice D is will reflect. This is therefore a
question about verb tense or how verbs change depending on when they take place in time. And take a moment here if
you want to pause the video and see if you can solve
this question without me. All right, let's do it. One of our top tips with
verb tense questions is to look closely at the
tenses of the other verbs in the paragraph to see what we can learn. So in this paragraph alone, I see took, finished, echoed, right? All the other verbs in these two sentences are in the past tense. And in our target sentence, I don't see anything that
would require a shift from one tense to another. The author is describing first the form and posture of the sculpture and then the expressiveness
and level of detail. Because the other verbs
are all in the past tense, I feel confident that this
sentence takes place in the past. And that's enough to
take out choices A and D, because has reflected is present tense. When you see a two verb phrase,
look for the helper verb because that will tell you
the tense of the phrase. And choice D, will
reflect, is future tense which is, again, not the past. So that leaves us with choices B and C, reflected and had reflected. And I would say again,
to look at the context and match the other verbs. The other verbs in this
paragraph don't use had, and we use had plus a main verb to show that an action is complete, that it's over and done with. So had reflected would
suggest that the statue, which from the context of the paragraph we know is brand new, that that statute had reflected
Renaissance sensibilities but perhaps no longer did. And it doesn't seem to me like the author is trying
to make that kind of subtle, complicated point. I don't wanna overthink this either. The other verbs don't have a helper so our choice shouldn't either. So I'm gonna knock out C and that means that our
choice is B, reflected. So this is my strategy. Once I realized that this
question is asking me about verb tense, here's what I do. First, I review the context to make sure that I understand what's going on. Is the sentence in the
present or the past tense? And second, I check the other
nearby verbs to consider if a verb tense shift makes sense or not. And it usually doesn't. And finally, I match that
tense in a logical way. Good luck out there. You've got this.