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Two separate skills in the rule cover verbs on subtest 826: "Determine and select standard verb forms" and "Determine and select inappropriate shifts in verb tense". The first is irregular past participles. The second is consistency across a sentence or short passage, and it is the one that shows up more.
The rule spends two of its twelve conventions skills on verbs, which is a sixth of the largest competency on the subtest. Worth taking seriously.
Skill 1: standard verb forms
This is irregular verbs, and it is memorization. English has a few dozen verbs whose past tense and past participle are not formed by adding -ed, and the exam draws from the ones people actually get wrong in writing.
| Base | Past | Past participle |
|---|---|---|
| lie (recline) | lay | lain |
| lay (place) | laid | laid |
| rise | rose | risen |
| raise | raised | raised |
| sit | sat | sat |
| set | set | set |
| lead | led | led |
| drag | dragged | dragged |
The first six are three pairs, and each pair is the same distinction: one verb takes an object, one does not. You raise something. You rise on your own. You lay a book down. You lie down. Learn the pairs together or you will learn neither.
The participle matters because of have. "She has laid the folder on the desk" is correct. "She has lay the folder" is not a form of anything.
Skill 2: inappropriate shifts in tense
The word doing the work in that skill statement is inappropriate. Tense shifts are not banned. A sentence can move from past to present quite legitimately when the time frame genuinely changes. What the exam looks for is a shift with no reason behind it.
Wrong: "She opened the folder and reads the first page." Nothing changed the time frame between the two verbs, so the shift is unjustified.
Right: "She opened the folder, and she still reads it every morning." The second clause is genuinely about the present.
Which revision corrects the sentence? After the students had finished the assessment, the proctor collects the answer sheets and reminded them of the schedule.
- No change is needed
- collected the answer sheets and reminded
- collects the answer sheets and reminds
- had collected the answer sheets and reminds
Sequence in complex sentences
The past perfect exists to show that one past event happened before another. "By the time she arrived, the meeting had started." The meeting is further back, so it takes had.
Get the order backwards and the sentence still parses but the sequence is wrong, which is exactly the kind of error that is hard to hear and easy to see once you know to look for it.
How to revise this in an evening
- Write the three troublesome pairs on one card: lie/lay, rise/raise, sit/set, with all three forms of each
- Take any paragraph you have written and mark every finite verb with its tense, then ask what changed the time frame at each shift
- Practice the past perfect by writing five sentences that put two past events in order
That is an hour of work, and it covers two of the twelve conventions skills. The return per hour on this topic is better than on almost anything else on the subtest, which is the honest reason to start here rather than with punctuation.
The qualification: we cannot tell you how many questions these two skills carry, because FLDOE publishes 30 questions for the subtest and stops. Two skills out of nineteen is the only ratio anybody has.
Common questions
Does the FTCE test irregular verbs?
Yes, under the skill "Determine and select standard verb forms" on the English Language Skills subtest. The pairs that come up most are lie and lay, rise and raise, and sit and set, where one verb of each pair takes a direct object and the other does not.
What is an inappropriate shift in verb tense?
A change of tense within a sentence or passage with nothing in the meaning to justify it. "She opened the folder and reads the first page" shifts from past to present for no reason. A shift is fine when the time frame genuinely changes.
When do I use the past perfect?
To put two past events in order. The earlier one takes had: "By the time she arrived, the meeting had started." If both events happened at the same time, simple past for both is correct and the past perfect would be wrong.
How much of subtest 826 is about verbs?
Two of the twelve skills under Knowledge of standard English conventions, plus agreement between subject and verb as a third. FLDOE publishes no per-skill question count, so treat that ratio as the only guide available rather than as a weighting.