The right tense for every task
By Michael Ukwuma
Which tenses each writing and speaking task needs, and the tense slips raters notice most.
Task by task
- Personal experience (Speaking Task 2): past simple and past continuous. I was walking home when it started to rain.
- Describing a scene (Task 3): present continuous. A woman is carrying a box.
- Predictions (Task 4): will, going to, might.
- Advice and opinions (Tasks 1 and 7): present simple and should, could, would.
- Emails about problems: present perfect for something still true. The heating has not worked since Monday.
- Requests: would and could. Would it be possible to...
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