Agreement and Tense Shift Quiz

Agreement and Tense Shift Quiz: Strengthen Your Writing Skills

Writing effectively requires more than just proper grammar and sentence structure. The ability to maintain agreement and consistency in tense is also crucial to producing clear and coherent content. If you want to improve your writing skills, take this agreement and tense shift quiz to test your knowledge and strengthen your abilities.

1. Which of the following sentences is grammatically correct?

a) He don`t know what he`s talking about.

b) They was happy to hear the news.

c) She sings beautifully.

The correct answer is (c). The first two sentences contain agreement errors, as “don`t” should be “doesn`t”, and “was” should be “were” to agree with the plural subject “they”. Sentence (c) is correct and demonstrates proper subject-verb agreement.

2. Which of the following sentences contains a tense shift error?

a) She is staring at the computer screen, wondering if she should take a break soon.

b) After the first few minutes of the meeting, he started to feel more comfortable.

c) I will be attending the conference next month, where I hope to learn new skills.

The correct answer is (b). The sentence starts in the past tense (“After the first few minutes”), but shifts to the present tense (“he started to feel”) without a clear reason for the change. To avoid tense shift errors, choose a tense and stick with it throughout the sentence or paragraph.

3. Which of the following sentences contains both agreement and tense shift errors?

a) They don`t have enough money to buy a new car, so she borrow her friend`s instead.

b) He has been working hard all week, and tomorrow he will take the day off.

c) The concert was amazing, and the band played all of their greatest hits.

The correct answer is (a). This sentence contains an agreement error with “don`t” instead of “doesn`t”, as well as a tense shift error with “borrow” instead of “borrows”. To correct the errors, the sentence could be revised to say “They don`t have enough money to buy a new car, so she borrows her friend`s instead.”

4. Which of the following sentences demonstrates proper agreement and tense consistency?

a) The children were playing outside when the storm clouds rolled in.

b) He is working on his resume and hopes to submit it to several job postings this week.

c) She had been studying for weeks before she felt confident enough to take the test.

The correct answer is (a). This sentence maintains subject-verb agreement with “the children were” and consistency in past tense throughout the sentence. Similarly, sentences (b) and (c) are both grammatically correct and show proper agreement and tense consistency.

By taking this agreement and tense shift quiz, you can identify areas where you may need to focus your attention and improve your skills. Remember to review your writing carefully for agreement and tense errors, and practice incorporating correct usage into your everyday writing to become a stronger and more effective writer.