Fair Game Verb Tense Review – Inglés con Joe

📝 Answers with explanations

The chart shows the verb forms used in the text and why each form is used. Pay attention not only to the tense, but also to the time relationship between actions and the verb patterns that follow certain verbs or expressions.

#	Answer	Grammar / Verb Form	Why?
1	set out	Past simple	A completed action in the past.
2	started	Past simple	Describes when the event began.
3	don't go out	Present simple	Describes a general habit or characteristic.
4	had seen	Past perfect	Shows that the sweater had already seen better days before the moment being described.
5	was thinking of	Past continuous	Describes what was occupying the narrator's thoughts at that particular time.
6	was finding	Past continuous	Describes the action the narrator was considering at that time.
7	Having started off	Perfect participle	Shows that the drizzle started before the next event being described.
8	had moved up	Past perfect	Shows that the drizzle had already intensified by that point.
9	were thinking	Past subjunctive	Used after as if for an imaginary or unreal situation.
10	turning into	-ing form	Follows the preposition about: thinking about turning into.
11	to smell	To-infinitive	Start + to-infinitive is a standard verb pattern.
12	coming	Present participle	See + object + -ing describes an action in progress.
13	acknowledged	Past participle	Part of the passive construction universally acknowledged.
14	to bump into	To-infinitive	Be fated + to-infinitive: fated to bump into.
15	haven't seen	Present perfect	Describes a situation continuing up to the present: for four years.
16	will be looking	Future continuous	Describes the narrator's appearance at the imagined moment of meeting Nina.
17	will be looking	Future continuous	Describes Nina's appearance at the same imagined moment.
18	was talking and laughing	Past continuous	Describes actions in progress at the time of the encounter.
19	was holding	Past continuous	Describes an action in progress at that moment.
20	getting	-ing form	Follows stop + object + -ing: stop her getting wet.
21	'd seen	Past perfect	The seeing occurred before another past reference point.
22	had	Past simple	Describes what Nina had or was accompanied by at that past time.
23	hadn't been	Past perfect	Describes the narrator's earlier reaction before the later point in the story.
24	seemed	Past simple	Describes the narrator's past impression or opinion.
25	didn't know	Past simple	Describes what the narrator did not know at that point in the story.
26	hit	Past simple	Describes a sudden, completed reaction: the spark hit me.

📚 Verb Tense Review

The text uses a variety of verb tenses and verb forms to describe actions, events, background information, habits, and situations that happened before or after other events. Review the explanations below to see how each tense or verb form works in the context of the story. Pay particular attention to the differences between the past simple, past continuous, and past perfect, as well as the different verb patterns used in the text.

1. Past Simple ▼ Reveal

Form: Past form of the verb

The past simple is used for completed events or actions in the past. It normally moves the story forward.

Examples:

The day it all started...

The spark hit me at once.

2. Past Continuous ▼ Reveal

Form: was/were + verb-ing

The past continuous describes an action that was in progress at a particular time in the past. It often provides background information in a story.

Examples:

She was talking and laughing in her silver-tinkle way.

He was holding her umbrella.

3. Past Perfect ▼ Reveal

Form: had + past participle

The past perfect shows that one action or situation happened before another past event.

Examples:

The drizzle had moved up a gear.

She 'd seen him before.

Think: earlier past → later past

4. Present Simple ▼ Reveal

Form: base verb / do not (don't) + base verb

The present simple can be used in a past narrative when the writer makes a general statement about a habit, characteristic, or fact.

Example:

Even I don't go out on the pull in manky old combats.

5. Present Perfect ▼ Reveal

Form: have/has + past participle

The present perfect connects the past with the present. It is often used with periods of time that continue up to now.

Example:

When you haven't seen her for four years...

Key idea: past action + connection to the present

6. Future Continuous ▼ Reveal

Form: will + be + verb-ing

The future continuous describes what someone will be doing or how someone will be appearing at a particular future or imagined moment.

Examples:

You will be looking like a pig's breakfast.

She will be looking like a Sunday Times fashion shoot.

7. Past Subjunctive with “As If” ▼ Reveal

Form: as if + subject + were

After as if, English can use the past subjunctive to describe an imaginary, unreal, or hypothetical situation.

Example:

As if it were thinking about turning into proper rain.

Compare: It wasn't really thinking. The writer is imagining that the drizzle could think.

8. Perfect Participle ▼ Reveal

Form: having + past participle

The perfect participle shows that one action happened before another action.

Example:

Having started off in mist-like fashion, the drizzle had moved up a gear.

Think: first action → second action

9. Verb Patterns ▼ Reveal

Some of the blanks test verb patterns rather than a particular tense.

• start + to-infinitive: starting to smell

• see + object + -ing: saw Nina coming

• stop + object + -ing: stop her getting wet

• think about + -ing: thinking about turning into rain

• be fated + to-infinitive: fated to bump into

📚 Complete text with answers

📖 Fair Game by Elizabeth Young - Complete Text

I never set out to pinch anyone's bloke, let alone Nina's. The day it all started, picking up a bloke was the last thing on my mind. Even I don't go out on the pull in manky old combats and a sweater that had seen better days. All I was thinking of that drizzly afternoon was was finding a cab home. Having started off in mist-like fashion, the drizzle had moved up a gear, as if it were thinking about turning into proper rain. At this point I was just up the road from Covent Garden, with drizzled-on hair and a jumper starting to smell of a wet Shetland sheep. That was when I saw Nina coming out of a smart little restaurant, with a bloke on her arm.

If I can misquote Jane Austen here, it is a truth universally acknowledged that if you are fated to bump into someone like Nina when you haven't seen her for four years, you will be looking like a pig's breakfast. While she will be looking like a Sunday Times fashion shoot in silk and cashmere. Only about six paces away, she was talking and laughing in her silver-tinkle way to the bloke, who was holding her umbrella up to stop her getting wet. The last time I 'd seen her (at a wedding four years back) she had some tall, dark specimen in tow. Although everything about him was theoretically perfect, I hadn't been particularly impressed - to me he seemed just a bit plastic, somehow. I didn't know what it was with quite this one - he wasn't classically good-looking exactly, but the spark hit me at once!