Rule 3.2: Use only approved verb forms and tenses

What a checker looks for

A clear deviation from the rule.

• Flag present perfect ('have/has adjusted') and past perfect ('had adjusted') constructions.
• Flag present or past progressive constructions ('is/was adjusting').
• Flag any other complex verb construction that combines an auxiliary verb with a participle in a way that is not one of the six approved forms.
• Confirm every finite verb in the text is one of: infinitive, imperative, simple present, simple past, simple future, or a past participle functioning as an adjective.

What this rule does not cover

• A past participle functioning as an adjective (before a noun, or after 'to be'/'to become'/'to stay') is allowed under rule 3.3 — do not confuse it with the disallowed perfect-tense construction that also uses a past participle.

How to fix it

Rewrite using one of the six approved forms — most often by converting a perfect or progressive construction to the simple past or simple present tense, or to the imperative for procedural instructions. If a mechanical tense substitution would change the intended time relationship (e.g. an action that is genuinely ongoing, future, or still relevant now), restructure the sentence instead — for example by splitting it into two sentences or adding a time reference — rather than forcing it into simple past. Caution: a sentence originally in the past/present progressive or perfect can carry an overlap, ongoing, or still-relevant-now meaning that a mechanical switch to simple past/present can silently drop (e.g. 'was checking ... when the alarm activated' describes an action in progress when a second event interrupted it, which 'checked ... when the alarm activated' does not preserve) — for those cases, restructure the sentence (e.g. split into two sentences, or add an explicit time reference) instead of substituting the tense.

Constraints on the fix

• Preserve the intended time relationship of the original sentence (do not turn future or ongoing information into simple past unless that changes no meaning).
• Verify the rewritten sentence still expresses the same aspect/time meaning as the original before accepting it; do not perform a blind tense substitution.