Why Tenses Can Mean Life or Death

This is the sad story of Aunt Betsy and Froufrou. It's also the story of how a wrong verb tense makes the difference between life and death - and could have saved a pooch.

Exaggeration works, so just imagine the following (or rather, have your students imagine it).

You're staying with your British aunt Betsy in London. It's late afternoon and you're in the living room, watching the telly. Aunty's little dog, a shih tzu named Froufrou, is napping on the rug. Aunty Betsy is in the kitchen, doing what English aunties do best: putting the kettle on for a nice cuppa.

Suddenly, while she's busying herself with the Earl Grey, a special news bulletin interrupts your TV programme, informing the public that a lion has escaped from London Zoo. "What's that about a lion, dear?" Aunt Betsy asks from the kitchen, to which you reply: "A lion escaped from the zoo, aunty." All seemingly harmless, yet a tragedy in the making.

Who's out there?

Later that evening, Aunt Betsy takes her darling Froufrou for their customary walk around the park. This time, however, she doesn't even make it to the end of her street. There's the lion, fierce and hungry, and that spells the end for little Froufrou.

Aunt Betsy barely manages to reach her front door and save her own skin, but poor Froufrou is no more. Your aunty is heartbroken, and you are to blame. The poor little dog died because you bungled your tenses...

You should have known...

If anything, little Froufrou's premature demise should point out that verb forms do matter. Frame it as a matter of life and death, and your exaggerated story will surely grab your students' attention. If they're curious about what went wrong, the battle is half-won already – and Froufrou will not have died in vain.

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