Literary Tenses — The First Verb Is a Contract
Grammar: Literary tenses + Historic present + Would for pas
Free ESL grammar exercise on literary tenses themed around the first verb is a contract. Printable worksheet from EnglishPlans.com.
What's on this worksheet
A Level 6 (proficiency) ESL grammar exercise on art, practising literary tenses + historic present + would for pas. The worksheet has a short reading excerpt, a grammar reference and graded practice items.
From the reading
Hilary Mantel understands this with unusual precision. In Wolf Hall, she deploys a second-person present-tense narrative voice that places the reader inside Thomas Cromwell's body rather than above it.
Grammar
- Historic present
- Cromwell enters the room and surveys the court. — past event told as if now
- Literary past simple
- Stevens paused at the window and said nothing. — stable distance, classic narrative default
Sample items
- Each summer, the old professor ______ sit by the window and correct student essays by hand.
- In this pivotal scene, the protagonist ______ the letter and... towards the door.
- Ishiguro's narrator ______ that the years in service had been his finest.
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