"As Things Stand" for the Present, Changeable State
5 exercises — practise hedging with "as things stand" and "as it stands".
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "as things stand" to hedge a statement about the current, possibly temporary situation?
"As things stand, we don't have enough capacity to support a third region" correctly uses the plural "things" with the base verb "stand" in this fixed present-tense phrase. Option B wrongly uses the gerund "standing". Option C uses the singular "thing" with the wrong verb agreement. Option D reverses the word order.
2 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "as it stands" (referring to a specific plan or design) rather than "as things stand" (referring to the general situation)?
"As it stands, the current schema doesn't support soft deletes; we'd need a migration" correctly uses the singular pronoun "it" to refer back to "the schema", with the correctly conjugated verb "stands". Option B wrongly uses the plural "they". Option C drops the required "-s" on "stands". Option D scrambles the word order.
3 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "as things stand" mid-sentence, set off by commas, to hedge a roadmap claim?
"The feature, as things stand, won't be ready for the Q3 release" correctly uses the present-tense "stand" enclosed in commas, matching the present-tense main clause about a future release. Option B incorrectly uses the past tense "stood", which mismatches the present framing. Option C is missing both required commas. Option D uses the singular "thing" incorrectly.
4 / 5
Which sentence correctly distinguishes "as things stand" (present, potentially temporary) from "as things stood" (a past state, before a later change)?
"As things stood before the refactor, every service shared a single database connection pool" correctly uses the past tense "stood" to match the past-tense main clause "shared", describing a state before a later change. Option B mismatches the present-tense "stand" with a past-time reference. Option C mismatches the past-tense "stood" with the present-tense "shares". Option D uses the singular "thing" incorrectly.
5 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "as things stand" to hedge a conclusion that is explicitly open to future revision?
"As things stand, the current approach is the safest option, though that could change once the new API ships" correctly uses the simple present "stand" to describe the present situation while the following clause signals that it may change. Option B incorrectly adds "will" to a phrase that is always present tense. Option C incorrectly uses the past perfect "had stood". Option D adds a stray "it" that doesn't belong in this fixed phrase.