WASSCE English Language · Paper 1 style

Tense

One sample question with the full working. 3 more in the app, with instant feedback and repair sessions for the traps below.

Choose the option that best completes the sentence: Yesterday, she ___ to Kano.

Ago
Bgoes
Chas gone
Dwent

Show the answer and working

Answer: D

Past: went.

Trap A Uses the wrong form of the verb or word: Identify the structure the frame demands (past perfect after 'by the time … arrived'; passive 'will be + past participle'; 'refuse to + verb') and check the option fills it exactly.

Trap B Confuses tense/aspect forms: Present perfect links past to now (since 2019, already, yet, for three years); simple past goes with finished time (yesterday, in 2010, last week).

Trap C Goes by a surface cue instead of the grammar: Ask what the word is DOING in this sentence (subject? modifier? object?) and what the rule says, not what its ending or look suggests.

Traps in Tense

Uses the wrong form of the verb or word
Identify the structure the frame demands (past perfect after 'by the time … arrived'; passive 'will be + past participle'; 'refuse to + verb') and check the option fills it exactly.
Confuses tense/aspect forms
Present perfect links past to now (since 2019, already, yet, for three years); simple past goes with finished time (yesterday, in 2010, last week).
Goes by a surface cue instead of the grammar
Ask what the word is DOING in this sentence (subject? modifier? object?) and what the rule says, not what its ending or look suggests.
Marks the same thing twice
Mark comparison, negation and plurality once. 'Unless' already means 'if not'; '-er' already means 'more'.
Conditional sentence errors
Type 1: If + present, will + base. Type 2: If + past, would + base. Type 3: If + past perfect, would have + past participle.

Practise Tense (3 questions)Send to your class on WhatsApp