Mixed Tense, the Past Affects the Future. To start out, take a look at the verbs in this sentence. My phone rang while I was sleeping. Can you identify the tenses? Ring is in the simple past and was sleeping is the past progressive. You may remember this from a previous lesson. You already know that it is possible to use these in the same sentence even though they are different tenses. And this make sense because both of these actions are in the past. You may also remember this example where we use two different tenses with a time clause. I'll be eating that bagel when you get to the office. We know that both of these actions occur in the future regardless of the fact that we are using present tense. But take a look at a different example. You decided to take this course because you want to improve your English. Notice the verb tenses in this sentence. We have past and present, which are two completely different times. You might ask, is this possible? The answer is yes. That is because the past affects the future. You made a decision to take this course a few weeks ago. You wanted to improve your English then. So, you could say this, but you also want to improve it now. Here's another example of mixed tenses. I feel tired today because I swam 3,000 meters yesterday. This time, we have the present tense in the result clause, and the past tense in the clause that tells us the cause. This is also possible. There are several different ways to mix tenses, as we will see in this lesson. Try to fill in the correct verb tense in this sentence using these verbs. Emily still upset because I her muffin last week. Can you change the verbs to the correct tense? Maybe this timeline will help you. The correct answer is Emily is still upset because I stole her muffin last week. Because Emily feels upset now about something that happened in the past. Try another example. I my suitcase today because I on a trip next week. Here's our time line. Here are the events. The correct answer is I am packing my suitcase today because I am going to go on a trip next week. You could also say, I am going on a trip next week, because this is a planned event. Here we have the present progressive, because this is today which is now, not a habit, and simple future for something that will occur after now. Think about the timeline for this one. Because there a hurricane tomorrow, Sam a bunch of supplies last night. When do these events occur? The answer is because there is going to be a hurricane tomorrow. Or we can also say, because there will be a hurricane tomorrow, since this is a prediction both ways are okay. Sam bought a bunch of supplies last night. The same rules apply to other cause and effect conjunctions, or in this case even though, which expresses the opposite of what we expect the result to be. I my car tomorrow even though it a lot lately. First, let's think carefully about the second verb rain. Notice the keyword lately. This is something that started in the past, continues now, and may continue in the future. Continue is a key word here. That means we should use present perfect progressive tense. The first verb, wash, is probably a bit easier. The correct answer is I'm going to wash my car tomorrow even though it has been raining a lot lately. In this sentence, we still have present perfect progressive in one clause, but notice what is different in the first clause. So, now our timeline looks like this, which means that we need to change the verb to I washed my car yesterday. Let's try something a little different. I've given you the correct sentence with the correct verb tenses. The wind had been blowing before I got home, so I will rake up the leaves in my backyard later. Now I'm going to show you two timelines and you need to pick the correct one that matches the sentence. Or, The second one is the correct timeline. The wind had been blowing in the past before I came home. In addition, came is in the past, not now. Now that I've exercised today, I think I'll eat some ice cream tonight. In this sentence, we have the conjunction now that, which means because now. That means we use some aspect of present tense with this phrase. Which timeline best represents this sentence? You'll need to decide if the action of exercise happened in the past or if it is happening now. If you chose the first timeline, then you are correct. Although this action happened in the past, we use present perfect because the time period of today is not finished yet. To review, we have seen that we can mix several tenses together, present and past or future and past, and present and future. We can even add progressive or perfect aspects if we need to. So how do you decide which tense to use? Well, there is not necessarily one rule that will tell you what tense to use. Just think about your timeline. It depends on when these actions happened.