“Grammar: Tenses and Concord”

🟢 Lite — Quick Review (1h–1d)

Rapid summary for last-minute revision before your exam.

“Grammar: Tenses and Concord” — Quick Facts

Tense = time of action (past, present, future) + how the action is viewed (simple, continuous, perfect, perfect continuous). Concord (also called agreement) = the subject and verb must match in number and person.

Essential Concord Rules:

• Singular subject → singular verb: “The boy plays.”
• Plural subject → plural verb: “The boys play.”
• Compound subjects joined by “and” → plural verb: “John and Mary are here.”
• Compound subjects joined by “or/nor” → verb agrees with the nearest subject: “Neither the teacher nor the students were present.”
• Collective nouns (jury, team, committee) → singular verb in British English: “The committee is meeting.”
• Non-count nouns (information, advice, luggage) → singular verb: “The information is useful.”
• Indefinite pronouns — everyone, nobody, each, either → singular verb: “Everyone is here.”
• “There is/Here is” + plural noun → the verb agrees with the noun: “There are many students.”

Key Tense Forms (All 12):

	Simple	Continuous	Perfect	Perfect Continuous
Past	played	was/were playing	had played	had been playing
Present	play(s)	am/is/are playing	have/has played	have/has been playing
Future	will play	will be playing	will have played	will have been playing

⚡ WAEC Exam Tip: In the WAEC objective paper, concord errors are the most commonly tested structural point. When a sentence “sounds wrong,” it usually violates concord. For tenses, always identify the time marker first — “yesterday” = past, “now” = present, “next week” = future.

---

🟡 Standard — Regular Study (2d–2mo)

Standard content for students with a few days to months.

“Grammar: Tenses and Concord” — Study Guide

Tense: Meaning and Use

Simple Tenses:

• Simple Present: habitual actions (“She walks to school daily”), general truths (“Water boils at 100°C”), states (“He lives in Lagos”), and commentary/narrative (“The striker kicks the ball and it hits the net”).
• Simple Past: completed actions at a definite time (“I visited Abuja last week”), sequences of past actions (“She opened the door, took off her shoes, and sat down”).
• Simple Future: predictions, spontaneous decisions, promises (“I will travel tomorrow”), and scheduled events (“The train leaves at 6 p.m.”).

Continuous Tenses:

• Present Continuous: actions happening now (“I am studying English”) or temporary arrangements (“She is staying with us this month”).
• Past Continuous: actions in progress at a specific past time (“I was sleeping at midnight”), background actions in narratives (“It was raining while we walked”).
• Future Continuous: actions in progress at a specific future time (“I will be sitting for the exam at 9 a.m. tomorrow”).

Perfect Tenses:

• Present Perfect: actions with present relevance — results (“I have lost my book” — still lost), unfinished time expressions (“I have written two letters this week”), and experience (“I have visited Paris twice”).
• Past Perfect: actions completed before another past action (“When I arrived, the film had started” — film started before arrival).
• Future Perfect: actions to be completed before a specific future time (“By December, I will have completed my studies”).

Concord in Detail:

Words Between Subject and Verb: “The box of chocolates was eaten.” — subject is “box,” not “chocolates.” “Each of the students has passed.” — “each” takes a singular verb even though “of the students” follows.

Relative Clauses: “The student who were nominated have arrived.” → “who” refers to “student” → singular verb: “The student who was nominated has arrived.”

Either/Neither, Or/Nor: “Either the boys or their mother is cooking dinner.” (mother is singular → singular verb) “Neither the manager nor the staff were informed.” (staff is plural → plural verb)

Percentages and Quantities: “With” + plural noun → plural verb: “70% of the students were present.” “Of” + singular mass noun → singular verb: “Half of the rice was consumed.”

⚡ Common Mistakes to Avoid:

• Treating collective nouns as plural: “The jury has reached its verdict” (not “have”)
• Using “none” incorrectly — “None of them was/were present” — both are acceptable, but WAEC often expects singular in formal contexts
• forgetting to backshift in indirect speech: “He said he liked apples” (not “likes”)
• Using the present perfect with finished time expressions: “I have finished yesterday” → “I finished yesterday”

---

🔴 Extended — Deep Study (3mo+)

Comprehensive coverage for students on a longer study timeline.

“Grammar: Tenses and Concord” — Comprehensive Notes

Advanced Concord and Tense Nuances

Subjunctive Mood (Advanced): The subjunctive uses the base form of the verb (no -s) and is used after “wish,” “if only,” and certain expressions of demand/suggestion:

• “I wish I were taller.” (not “was”)
• “If only she knew the truth.” (not “knew” — subjunctive base form is acceptable here too)
• “It is essential that he arrive on time.” (not “arrives” — subjunctive base form)
• “I would rather you told me the truth.” (not “tell”)

Sequence of Tenses (Backshift): In indirect speech, main clauses in the past tense cause subordinate clauses to shift backwards:

Direct	Indirect
”I am reading,” she said.	She said she was reading.
”I will come tomorrow.”	She said she would come the following day.
”I have finished.”	She said she had finished.
”I saw him.”	She said she had seen him.

Note: Universal truths and habitual facts do NOT backshift:

• “The earth is round,” he said. → He said the earth is round. (not “was”)

Tense in Conditional Sentences:

Type	Structure	Time
Zero	If + present simple → present simple	General truths
First	If + present simple → will + verb	Future possibility
Second	If + past simple → would + verb	Present unreal
Third	If + past perfect → would have + past participle	Past unreal
Mixed	If + past perfect → would + verb (present result)	Past cause, present effect

Examples:

• Zero: “If you heat ice, it melts.”
• First: “If it rains tomorrow, I will stay indoors.”
• Second: “If I had money, I would buy a car.” (I don’t have money now)
• Third: “If she had revised, she would have passed.” (she didn’t revise, didn’t pass)

Special Concord Cases:

1. “Neither… nor” / “Either… or” — verb agrees with the nearer subject: “Neither my parents nor my brother was informed.” / “Neither my brother nor my parents were informed.”

2. “A number of / The number of”:

   • “A number of students were absent.” (a number of = many, plural)
   • “The number of students absent is ten.” (the number = a quantity, singular)

3. Foreign plurals: criteria, phenomena, media, bacteria → all treated as plural in English. “The criteria are difficult to meet.” / “The media have reported the event.”

4. “None”: Traditionally singular (“None of them is here”), but in modern usage, plural is widely accepted when “none” refers to more than one thing: “None of the students were present.”

5. Inverted word order: In questions, the verb comes before the subject: “Has the team arrived?” / “Were the children playing?”

WAEC Past Question Patterns:

• Identifying the correct verb form to fill a gap in a sentence
• Spotting concord errors in error identification questions
• Selecting the correct tense in indirect speech transformations
• Completing conditional sentences correctly
• Choosing between “who” and “whom” in relative clauses
• Selecting the correct form after “neither… nor” / “either… or”

⚡ WAEC-Specific Exam Tips:

1. For concord questions, identify the actual subject first by removing all phrases and clauses between the subject and verb.
2. In tenses, look for time expressions as your primary clue: “already,” “yet,” “just,” “ever,” “never” → present perfect.
3. When answering conditional questions, check whether the result is possible (first conditional) or purely imaginary (second conditional).
4. For indirect speech, always note whether the reporting verb is in the past — if it is, check for backshift.
5. In error-identification questions, if you cannot immediately spot the error, check each option against the concord and tense rules systematically.
6. For “fill in the correct tense” questions, write out the full sentence with your chosen verb to check it reads naturally before selecting your answer.

---

Content adapted based on your selected roadmap duration. Switch tiers using the pill selector above.