VERB FORMS2nd Year III Term

Unit XI

VERB FORMS

A typical English verb may have five different inflected forms:

• The base form or plain form (go, write, climb), which has several uses—as an infinitive, imperative, present subjunctive, and present indicative except in the third-person

singular • The -s form (goes, writes, climbs), used as the present indicative in the third-

person singular • the past tense or preterite (went, wrote, climbed)

• The past participle (gone, written, climbed) – this is identical to the past tense in the case of regular verbs and some irregular ones (here the first two verbs are irregular

and the third regular) • The -ing form (going, writing, climbing), used as a present participle, gerund, and

verbal noun The verb be has a larger number of different forms (am, is, are, was, were, etc.), while the modal verbs have a more limited number of forms. Some forms of be and of certain other

auxiliary verbs also have contracted forms ('s, 're, 've, etc.). For full details of how these inflected forms of verbs are produced, see English verbs.

COMBINATIONS

In English, verbs frequently appear in combinations containing one or more auxiliary verbs and a nonfinite form (infinitive or participle) of a main (lexical) verb. For example:

➤ The dog was barking very loudly. ➤ My hat has been cleaned. ➤ Jane does not really like us.

The first verb in such a combination is the finite verb, the remainder are nonfinite (although constructions in which even the leading verb is nonfinite are also possible). Such

combinations are sometimes called compound verbs; more technically they may be called verb catenae, since they are not generally strict grammatical constituents of the clause. As the last example shows, the words making up these combinations do not always remain

consecutive.

TENSES REVIEW

Present Present tense is used, in principle, to refer to circumstances that exist at the present time (or over a period that includes the present time). It is also possible for the present tense to

be used when referring to no particular real time (as when telling a story), or when recounting past events (the historical present, particularly common in headline language).

The present perfect intrinsically refers to past events, although it can be considered to denote primarily the resulting present situation rather than the events themselves.

Past Past tense forms express circumstances existing at some time in the past, although they

also have certain uses in referring to hypothetical situations (as in some conditional sentences, dependent clauses and expressions of wish). They are formed using the finite

verb in its preterite (simple past) form. Certain uses of the past tense may be referred to as subjunctives; however the only

distinction in verb conjugation between the past indicative and past subjunctive is the possible use of were in the subjunctive in place of was.

OTHER TENSES

Future English is sometimes described as having a future tense, although since future time is not

specifically expressed by verb inflection, some grammarians identify only two tenses (present or present-future, and past). The English "future" usually refers to a periphrastic form involving the auxiliary verb will (or sometimes shall when used with a first-person

subject; see shall and will). There also exist other ways of referring to future circumstances, including the going to construction, and the use of present tense forms (see

above). For particular grammatical contexts where the present tense substitutes for the future, see conditional sentences and dependent clauses below. For discussion and

comparison of the various ways of making future reference in English, see going-to future.

Future-in-the-past A "future-in-the-past" tense (or form) is sometimes referred to.[1] This takes essentially the same form as the conditional, that is, it is made using the auxiliary would (or sometimes

should in the first person; see shall and will). This form has a future-in-the-past meaning in sentences such as She knew that she would win the game. Here the sentence as a whole refers to some particular past time, but would win refers to a time in the future relative to that past time. See Future tense § Expressions

of relative tense involving the future.

ASPECTS IN THE FORMS

Simple "Simple" forms of verbs are those appearing in constructions not marked for either

progressive or perfect aspect (I go, I don't go, I went, I will go, etc., but not I'm going or I have gone).

Simple constructions normally denote a single action (perfective aspect), as in Brutus killed Caesar, a repeated action (habitual aspect), as in I go to school, or a relatively permanent

state, as in We live in Dallas. They may also denote a temporary state (imperfective aspect), in the case of stative verbs that do not use progressive forms.

Progressive The progressive or continuous aspect is used to denote a temporary action or state that

began at a previous time and continues into the present time (or other time of reference). It is expressed using a form of the auxiliary verb to be (conjugated appropriately for tense etc.) together with the present participle (-ing form) of the main verb: I am reading; Were

you shouting?; He will be sitting over there.

Perfect progressive The perfect and progressive (continuous) aspects can be combined, usually in referring to the completed portion of a continuing action or temporary state: I have been working for

eight hours. Here a form of the verb have (denoting the perfect) is used together with been (the past participle of be, denoting the progressive) and the present participle of the main

verb. In the case of the stative verbs, which do not use progressive aspect (see the above section

on the progressive), the plain perfect form is normally used in place of the perfect progressive: I've been here for half an hour (not *I've been being here...).

EXERCISES

➤ Identify the correct tense and complete the sentence:

➤ He___________(Break) the window a few days ago.

➤ Every one of them __________(Listen) to the radio every day.

➤ Both my sister and I ________ (know) how to bake bread.

➤ I love my sister and she _______(Love) me.

➤ He stood up and _______ the room.

➤ Bruce is _________ in the lake.

➤ _____ he eat lunch at the school?

EXERCISES

➤ Identify the correct tense and complete the sentence:

➤ I _____ (meet) her at the train station yesterday.

➤ I know his sister, and Jane _______(know) her too.

➤ My uncle _______ (tell) me a story last Saturday.

➤ They _______ (run) as fast as they could.

➤ Every country ______ (have) good people and bad people.

➤ What time does she ______ (eat) dinner?