Question

Rewrite the paragraph below, correcting the shifts in verb tense. Father Firman invited his friend, Father Nulty, to come over and have dinner with him and Mrs. Stoner. The maid fixes a big dinner for the three of them, and when they were ready for dessert, she brings a cake out for Father Nulty because it was his fifty-ninth birthday. The candles were lit and the lights are turned out so that he could blow out the candles in the dark. Mrs. Stoner then begins to clear the table of the food and dishes.

Answer 1

Answer:

Mr. Firman invited his friend, Mr. Nulty, to come over and have dinner with him and Mrs. Stoner. The maid fixed a big dinner for the three of them, and when they were ready for dessert, she brought a cake out for Mr. Nulty because it was his fifty-ninth birthday. The candles were lit and the lights were turned out so that he could blow out the candles in the dark. Mrs. Stoner then began to clear the table of the food and dishes.

Explanation:

The given paragraph recounts a past event and thus, the tense of the verbs would be written in the past indefinite tense consequently. Since some of the verbs are mistakenly written in the present tense, they need to be shifted into the past tense(which is called tense shift). This will assist in enhancing the vividness and incision of the narrative account. Thus, verbs like 'fixes, brings, are turned, begins' will be changed into the past in order to make the meaning more precise and clear.