Do I need to change quotes to present tense?
The modified quote:
“[He] gnashed [his] teeth, [his] eyes became inflamed, and [he] ardently wished to extinguish that life which [he] had so thoughtlessly bestowed”
Do I have to change the verbs (gnashed, became, wished..) to present tense as well since my whole essay is in present tense? Or can I keep it as is because it is a quote?
If I have to change it to present tense, do I put the whole words in brackets or just the [s]?
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Verified answer
No, you do not change the tense of the verbs unless you are trying to grammatically integrate the quotation into a sentence that is partly by you. For example, if you are doing the following, you would not change the tenses:
The author writes: "He gnasned his teeth, his eyes became inflamed."
But, if you are trying to do something like this, you do need to change the tenses:
Next comes a scene in which "he gnashe[s] his teeth [and] his eyes be[come] inflamed."
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My teacher makes us change the verbs to present tense so say it was originally "she walked to school everyday." I would change it to "[Anne] [walks] to school everyday".