I'm not sure about the verb tense I should use here:
Run this definition so that the previous changes become/became visible.
I think the correct one is Present Simple but it sounds better with Past Simple.
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General Reference. OP's text is clearly a sentence, since it starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop. It's irrelevant that we could grammatically include that string of words within a longer sentence such as "Did you run this definition so that the previous changes became visible?", where past tense is valid.– FumbleFingersAug 21, 2012 at 23:12
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2 Answers
Run this definition so that the previous changes become visible.
You'd use become, the sentence is in the present tense. Became is the PAST tense.
answered Jun 26, 2012 at 14:20
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2@JohnLawler passing on this correction from user F.E.: "Imperatives are headed by the base form (i.e. plain form) of a verb -- not by a present tense form of a verb. This can be seen when the verb BE is used. That is, the imperative is NOT in present-tense." as commented here: english.stackexchange.com/questions/196806/…– semantaxSep 17, 2014 at 3:06
become is used in the following context
Run this definition so that the previous changes become visible
and became is used like this :-
Ran this definition so that the previous changes became visible
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The latter does not make sense to me.– user19148Jun 26, 2012 at 21:37