8 Combining messages 266

Adverbial clauses 267

Time clauses 268

Conditional clauses 271

Purpose clauses 274

Reason clauses 275

Result clauses 275

Concessive clauses 276

Place clauses 278

Clauses of manner 278

Relative clauses 279

Using relative pronouns in defining clauses 280

Using relative pronouns in non-defining clauses 281

Using relative pronouns with prepositions 281

Using 'whose' 281

Using other relative pronouns 282

Additional points about non-defining relative clauses 283

Nominal relative clauses 283

Non-finite clauses 284

Using non-defining clauses 284

Using defining clauses 285

Other structures used like non-finite clauses 285

Coordination 286

Linking clauses 286

Linking verbs 288

Linking noun groups 289

Linking adjectives and adverbs 290

Linking other word groups 291

Emphasizing coordinating conjunctions 291

Linking more than two clauses or word groups 292

Contents of Chapter 9 292

9 Making texts 293

Referring back 293

Referring back in a specific way 294

Referring back in a general way 295

Substituting for something already mentioned: using 'so' and 'not' 297

Comparing with something already mentioned 298

Referring forward 299

Leaving out words: ellipsis 300

Ellipsis in conversation 302

Contents of Chapter 10 303

10 The structure of information 304

Introduction 304

Focusing on the thing affected: the passive voice 305

Selecting focus: cleft sentences 308

Taking the focus off the subject: using impersonal 'it' 309

Describing a place or situation 310

Talking about the weather and the time 310

Commenting on an action, activity, or experience 311

Commenting on a fact that you are about to mention 312

Introducing something new: 'there' as subject 313

Focusing on clauses or clause elements using adjuncts 314

Commenting on your statement: sentence adjuncts 314

Indicating your attitude to what you are saying 314

Stating your field of reference 316

Showing connections: linking adjuncts 317

Indicating a change in a conversation 318

Emphasizing 319

Indicating the most relevant thing: focusing adverbs 320

Other information structures 321

Putting something first: fronting 321

Introducing your statement: prefacing structures 322

Doing by saying: performative verbs 322

Exclamations 323

Making a statement into a question: question tags 324

Addressing people: vocatives 325

Contents of the Reference Section 326

Reference Section 326

Pronunciation guide 326

Forming plurals of count nouns 327

Forming comparative and superlative adjectives 328

The spelling and pronunciation of possessives 330

Numbers 331

Cardinal numbers 331

Ordinal numbers 332

Fractions and percentages 332

Verb forms and the formation of verb groups 333

Finite verb groups and the formation of tenses 339

Non-finite verb groups: infinitives and participles 342

Forming adverbs 344

Forming comparative and superlative adverbs 345

Index 346

5 Expressing time

Introduction

5.1 When you are making a statement, you usually need to indicate whether you are referring to a situation which exists now, existed in the past, or is likely to exist in the future. The point in time that a statement relates to is usually indicated in part by the verb group used in the clause.

A set of verb forms that indicate a particular point in time or period of time in the past, present, or future is called a tense.

The set of forms belonging to a particular tense is usually obtained by the addition of inflections to the base form of the verb, or by the inclusion auxiliaries or mortals in the verb group.

smile...smiled

was smiling...has been smiling...had smiled

will smile...may smile

Some verbs have irregular forms for past tenses.

fight...fighting...fought

go...going...went

For information about all these forms and which tenses they refer to, see the Reference Section.

5.2 Sometimes the point in time that the clause relates to is sufficiently indicated by the tense of the verb group, and no other time reference is required. However, if you want to draw attention to the time of the action, you use an adjunct of time.

She's moving tomorrow.

Record profits were announced last week.

He was better after undergoing surgery on Saturday.

An adjunct of time can be an adverb, a noun group, or a prepositional phrase.

For more general information about adjuncts, see the beginning of Chapter 6.

position of adjuncts 5.3 Adjuncts of time normally come at the end of a clause, after the verb or after its object if there is one. You can put more focus on the time by placing the adjunct at the beginning of the clause.

Mr Shamir will visit Washington next month.

Last month, Mr Hurd asked his officials to report back to him.

I was playing golf yesterday.

Yesterday the atmosphere at the factory was tense.

If the adjunct is an adverb, it can also come immediately after 'be' or after the first auxiliary in a verb group.

She is now pretty well-known in this country.

Cooper had originally been due to retire last week.

Public advertisements for the post will soon appear in the national press.

5 4 Some verb forms are used to say that an event takes place continuously over a period of time, or is repeated several times. You may also want to say how long something lasts, or how often it happens. To do this, adjuncts of duration and adjuncts of frequency are used.

America has always been highly influential.

People who come in with enquiries are often very shy about making them.

1,000 dogs are put down daily, according to R.S.P.C.A. figures.

They would go on talking for hours.

Adverbs of frequency are explained and listed in paragraphs 5.114 to 5.122. Adverbs of duration are explained and listed in paragraphs 5.123 to 5.144.

5.5 The following paragraphs describe the ways in which you can refer to the present, the past, and the future. After each of these, there is a section on the ways in which you use adjuncts with each tense.

There are some adjuncts which are used mainly with the past tenses. These are explained in paragraph 5.41. Adjuncts which are used with future tenses can be found in paragraphs 5.60 to 5.62.

5.6 This chapter deals only with the choice of tense in main clauses.

Sometimes, the point in time that a clause relates to is not indicated by an adjunct, but by a subordinate clause. Subordinate clauses of time are introduced by conjunctions which refer to time, such as 'since', 'until', 'before' and 'after'.

For information about the tense of the verb in the subordinate clause, see paragraph 8.9.