Master English Grammar: Sequence of Tenses

What is the Sequence of Tenses?
✅ The rules governing verb tenses are dictated by logic; an action in the future obviously cannot happen before an action in the past. In writing, it’s a matter of looking at your clauses and sentences and determining when each action is happening relative to everything else. The past must come before the present, and the present before the future, etc.
Pay particular attention to the verb sequence when you have a dependent clause before an independent clause, or a result clause before the if-clause.

✅ When an independent clause is in the past tense, any dependent clauses must also be written in the past tense, not the present tense or the future tense. Consider the example below for an illustration of this rule:
The cat was bathing because his feet are dirty.
The cat was bathing because his feet will be dirty.

✅ Because the tense of the independent clause is in the past (was bathing), the verb in the dependent clause should also be in the past, as illustrated in the sentence below:
The cat was bathing because his feet were dirty.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxeAvgpdeoM

I hope you enjoyed this English lesson about the the sequence of tenses in English!

Remember: Always watch the video three times. Twice today with English subtitles on, and once tomorrow with the English subtitles off. This will help you remember the English you’ve learned!

😎 If you liked this video, you might like this one about the Simple Present Tense: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKcWvrcEL-o 😎

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