sequence of tenses

British  

noun

1. grammar the sequence according to which the tense of a subordinate verb in a sentence is determined by the tense of the principal verb, as in I believe he is lying, I believed he was lying, etc

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Example Sentences

Ever the English professor, he was careful about the sequence of tenses.

From New York Times • Jul. 22, 2013

Resnais, a past master of cinematic sleight of hand, has often taken a story and stylized it, juxtaposed images, shuffled the sequence of tenses.

From Time Magazine Archive

We now see that the past tense has a third meaning in English: a backshifted event in a sequence of tenses.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

A writer also has to harmonize the tenses according to a scheme called sequence of tenses, tense agreement, or backshift.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

The two editions 'agree in the sequence of tenses, with a few exceptions also in the sequence of speeches, and on the whole even in the sequence of lines.

From Early Plays — Catiline, the Warrior's Barrow, Olaf Liljekrans by Orbeck, Anders