---
title: What would happen if a story jumped tense in every sentence? — Tense consistency and verb forms · tree and pragmatics
description: What would happen if a story jumped tense in every sentence? Test 8 · ★ of lesson 31 «Tense consistency and verb forms» of the English course of Mova's primary school, with the dependency tree and pragmatics of the question and of each option; Mova's choice was wrong.
---

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# Test 8 · ★ · Tense consistency and verb forms

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
What would happen if a story jumped tense in every sentence?

<!-- .vintro -->
**Mova's choice:** option 1 · **The right answer:** option 2 · wrong ✗ · **Who acts:** story · **What happens:** happen, jump · **To what, where:** sentence

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This is test 8 · ★ of lesson 31 «Tense consistency and verb forms» of the English course of Mova's primary school. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: [the test at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/english/31-tense-consistency-and-verb-forms/#t8).

## The question {#question}

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:31-tense-consistency-and-verb-forms:t8:1
# text = What would happen if a story jumped tense in every sentence?
1	What	what	PRON	WP	PronType=Int	3	nsubj	_	_
2	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	3	aux	_	_
3	happen	happen	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
4	if	if	SCONJ	IN	_	7	mark	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	nsubj	_	_
7	jumped	jump	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	advcl	_	_
8	tense	tense	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	xcomp	_	_
9	in	in	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
10	every	every	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	11	det	_	_
11	sentence	sentence	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	7	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	?	?	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **happen** | would |  |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 2 | **jump** *a condition, not said to happen* | past | a story |  |  | every sentence |  | tense *property* | vn run-51.3.2-2-1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme in sentence=Trajectory |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

## The options {#options}

### Option 1 · ← Mova's choice {#o1}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Nothing, because readers ignore verbs

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:31-tense-consistency-and-verb-forms:t8:o1:1
# text = Nothing, because readers ignore verbs
1	Nothing	nothing	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	5	punct	_	_
3	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	5	mark	_	_
4	readers	reader	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	nsubj	_	_
5	ignore	ignore	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	1	acl:relcl	_	_
6	verbs	verb	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obj	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **ignore** | present | readers | verbs |  |  |  |  | vn neglect-75.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent verb=Theme |

### Option 2 · ✓ the right answer {#o2}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The reader would lose track of when things happen

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:31-tense-consistency-and-verb-forms:t8:o2:1
# text = The reader would lose track of when things happen
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	reader	reader	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	lose	lose	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	track	track	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
6	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	fixed	_	_
7	when	when	ADV	WRB	PronType=Int	9	advmod	_	_
8	things	thing	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	nsubj	_	_
9	happen	happen	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	4	advcl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **lose** | would | the reader | track |  |  |  |  | vn succeed-74-3-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent track=Eventuality |
| 2 | **happen** | present | things |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 3 {#o3}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The story would become far more exciting and much clearer to follow

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:31-tense-consistency-and-verb-forms:t8:o3:1
# text = The story would become far more exciting and much clearer to follow
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	become	become	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	far	far	ADV	RB	Degree=Pos	6	advmod	_	_
6	more	more	ADV	RBR	Degree=Cmp	7	advmod	_	_
7	exciting	exciting	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	4	xcomp	_	_
8	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
9	much	much	ADV	RB	_	10	advmod	_	_
10	clearer	clear	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	7	conj	_	_
11	to	to	PART	TO	_	12	mark	_	_
12	follow	follow	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	10	xcomp	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **become** | would | the story |  |  |  |  | exciting *property* | vn become-109.1-1-1 «NP V PP.attribute»: agent=Patient |
| 2 | **follow** | to-infinitive | the story *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

### Option 4 {#o4}

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The story would turn into a poem

```conllu
# sent_id = question:english:31-tense-consistency-and-verb-forms:t8:o4:1
# text = The story would turn into a poem
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	story	story	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	would	would	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	4	aux	_	_
4	turn	turn	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	0	root	_	_
5	into	into	ADP	IN	_	7	case	_	_
6	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
7	poem	poem	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
```

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **turn** | would | the story |  |  | a poem |  |  | vn roll-51.3.1 «NP V PP.trajectory»: agent=Theme into poem=Trajectory |

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**Text:** the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (`world/data/school/`), as the course runner gave them to the student. **Trees:** Mova's own parse — the `en` model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

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- ← previous: [Tense consistency and verb forms, test 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/english/31-tense-consistency-and-verb-forms/t7/)
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