Verb Tense and Form on the ACT: Every Rule, Named and Explained

Find the first main verb in the sentence — the verb that is not underlined and therefore not being tested. This is the anchor verb. Its tense is the correct tense for the sentence. Every underlined verb in the same sentence must match the anchor verb’s tense unless a time marker (like “before,” “after,” “when,” or “twenty years ago”) signals a legitimate shift.

If the anchor verb is past tense and the underlined verb is present tense with no time marker to justify the shift, the underlined verb is wrong. Find the answer choice that matches the anchor tense. This eliminates most tense consistency errors before you read past the first clause.

Before answering any verb tense question, read at least one full sentence before and one full sentence after the underlined portion. Look for verbs that are not underlined — these are your tense anchors for the passage. If the surrounding sentences are consistently past tense, the underlined verb should be past tense. If the passage has shifted to present tense (for a present-day context or a general truth), the underlined verb should match.

Also look for explicit time markers in the surrounding sentences: phrases like “in 1987,” “today,” “currently,” “by the end of the decade,” or “for the past three years.” These are the most reliable tense signals on the ACT and should guide your answer even when the underlined sentence itself offers no clear clue.

When you see past perfect (“had done,” “had finished,” “had left”) in an answer choice, ask: are there two past events in this sentence, and is one clearly completed before the other begins? If yes — use past perfect for the earlier event and simple past for the later one. If the two events happened at roughly the same time, or if only one past event is described, simple past is correct and past perfect is wrong.

Time markers are your guide: words like “before,” “after,” “already,” “by the time,” and “when” often signal that the past perfect is needed. When these words appear, identify the earlier of the two actions and apply past perfect to it.

Find the tense of the main (non-underlined) verb in the sentence. This is your timeline trigger. Present tense anchor → use “will” for future actions in the same sentence. Past tense anchor → use “would” for future-from-the-past actions. The logic: “would” is the past tense of “will,” so when your anchor is past, “would” is the consistent form.

Common ACT pattern: a passage about a historical figure describes what they “hoped,” “believed,” or “knew” (all past tense) followed by what they expected to happen. The expected future action, seen from their past perspective, takes “would” not “will.” Example: “She believed the project would succeed” (not “will succeed”) because the believing is past tense.

When a gerund or infinitive is underlined, swap the form and read both versions. If swapping from “-ing” to “to + verb” (or vice versa) makes the sentence sound significantly more natural and grammatical, the original is wrong. Pay particular attention to verbs that require a specific form: verbs like “begin,” “continue,” and “prefer” can take either form, but verbs like “avoid,” “consider,” and “enjoy” require a gerund, while “decide,” “plan,” “want,” and “intend” require an infinitive.

The most common ACT gerund error is using a gerund where an infinitive is required after certain verbs. “She decided submitting the report” is wrong because “decide” requires an infinitive: “She decided to submit the report.” If the preceding verb demands one form, no amount of stylistic preference can make the other form correct.

For these three pairs, memorize the conjugations and the object rule:

Lie (to recline — no object): lie, lay, lain, lying. “She lay on the couch.” (past tense of lie) — no object follows.
Lay (to place something — requires object): lay, laid, laid, laying. “She laid the book on the table.” — “the book” is the object.

Rise (to go up — no object): rise, rose, risen, rising. “The sun rose at 6 a.m.”
Raise (to lift something — requires object): raise, raised, raised, raising. “She raised her hand.”

Sit (to be seated — no object): sit, sat, sat, sitting. “He sat in the chair.”
Set (to place something — requires object): set, set, set, setting. “She set the cup on the counter.”

The quick test: does a direct object follow the verb? If yes, you need the transitive verb (lay, raise, set). If no object follows, use the intransitive verb (lie, rise, sit).

Find the first item in the list — the one that is not underlined. This is the list anchor. Its grammatical form is the required form for every other item in the list. If the anchor is a past-tense verb, all items must be past tense. If the anchor is a gerund (-ing form), all items must be gerunds. If the anchor is an infinitive (to + verb), all items must be infinitives.

The most common ACT violation: a list that uses two conjugated verbs and one gerund, or two infinitives and one gerund. The test will underline the non-parallel item and offer the correctly parallel form as one of the answer choices. Identify the anchor, match the form, and the answer is clear.