- •Contents
- •The Future-In-The-Past Tense……………………………………………………………..45 the present indefinite (simple) tense
- •I. The formation of the Present Indefinite.
- •1. The Present Indefinite is formed from the infinitive without the particle to.
- •9. To denote future actions in adverbial clauses of time after conjunctions when
- •10. To denote future actions in adverbial clauses of condition after conjunctions if
- •In case
- •11. To denote future actions in adverbial clauses of concession after conjunctions
- •What do we do next?
- •The present continuous tense
- •III. The Present Continuous Tense is used to denote:
- •Actions or events which are in progress at the moment of speaking. To emphasize this, we often use adverbials like now, at the moment, just, etc.:
- •6. For a frequently repeated action, usually when the frequency annoys the speaker or
- •7. For an action which appears to be continuous:
- •8. To describe current trends:
- •Verbs not normally used in the continuous tenses
- •VII. Verbs denoting effect or influence: astonish, impress, please, satisfy, surprise. Feel, look, smell and taste used in the continuous forms
- •2. Look
- •3. Smell
- •4.Taste
- •See and hear used in the continuous forms
- •Think, assume and expect used in the continuous forms
- •The past indefinite (simple) tense
- •I. The formation of the Past Indefinite.
- •Verbs ending in -e add -d only:
- •3. The contracted negative forms are:
- •4. The negative-interrogative forms are:
- •Irregular verbs: form
- •If the period is over or reference is made to a particular past point of time within that
- •2. In narrations to express a succession of action of past actions.
- •3. To express recurrent actions. It is generally supported by the use of adverbial modifiers
- •4. To express the immediate past. We can sometimes use the simple past without a time
- •6. To express permanent actions which indicate continuous, uninterrupted processes in the past, giving a general characteristic of the person or thing denoted by the subject.
- •The past continuous tense
- •2. The Past Continuous is used to express an action going on at a given period of time in the past.
- •The future indefinite (simple) tense
- •I. The formation of the Future Indefinite Tense
- •1. The Future Indefinite is formed by means of the auxiliary verbs shall/will
- •3. To denote future habitual actions which we assume will take place.
- •4. In sentences containing clauses of condition, time and sometimes purpose
- •The future continuous tense
- •The present perfect tense
- •III. The use of the Present Perfect
- •Have you been to Denmark?
- •Is this the first time you’ve been in hospital?
- •The present perfect continuous tense
- •I. The formation of the Present Perfect Continuous Tense
- •The past perfect tense
- •Had he not worked?
- •Hadn’t you worked?
- •The Squire was purple with anger before his son had done speaking.
- •With verbs not admitting of the Continuous form:
- •In negative sentences:
- •II. The contracted affirmative forms are:
- •Had he not been working?
- •Hadn’t you been working?
- •III. The use of the Past Perfect Continuous
- •The future perfect tense
- •I. The formation of thePerfect Continuous Tense
- •Will he not have worked?
- •Shan’t we have worked?
- •III. The use of the Future Perfect
- •The future perfect continuous tense
- •I. The formation of the Future Perfect Continuous Tense
- •II. The contracted affirmative forms are:
- •The Future Perfect Continuous denotes an action begun before a definite moment in the future and continued into that future moment;
- •The future-indefinite-in-the-past
- •I. The formation of the Future-Indefinite-in-the-Past
- •II. The contracted affirmative forms are:
- •Shouldn’t I work/
- •III. The use of the Future-Indefinite-in-the-Past.
- •The future-continuous-in-the-past
- •I. The formation of the Future-Continuous-in-the-Past
- •II. The contracted affirmative forms are:
- •I. The formation of the Future-Continuous-in-the-Past
- •I. The formation of the Future-Perfect-in-the-Past
- •II. The contracted affirmative forms are:
- •Should I not have been working?
- •Wouldn’t he have been working?
- •III. The use of the Future-Perfect-Continuous-in-the-Past
- •List of irregular verbs
- •Appendix
- •I. Some spelling rules
- •I. Doubling the final consonant.
- •II. Mute Final e.
- •III. Final -y and Its Modifications.
The past indefinite (simple) tense
I. The formation of the Past Indefinite.
The Past Indefinite is formed by adding -ed or -d to the stem (regular verbs),
or by changing the root vowel, or in some other ways (irregular verbs).
Verbs ending in -e add -d only:
Infinitive: to love Simple past: loved
The same form is used for all persons:
I worked you worked he worked etc.
2. The interrogative and the negative forms are formed by means of the Present Indefinite of
the auxiliary verb to do and the Infinitive of the notional verb without the particle to.
Affirmative Interrogative Negative
I worked (wrote) Did I work? (write) I did not work (write)
He worked (wrote) Did he work? (write) He did not work (write)
She worked (wrote) Did she work? (write) She did not work (write)
We worked (wrote) Did we work? (write) We did not work (write)
You worked (wrote) Did you work? (write) You did not work (write)
They worked (wrote) Did they work? (write) They did not work (write)
3. The contracted negative forms are:
I didn`t work
She didn`t work
4. The negative-interrogative forms are:
Did you not work?
Didn`t you work?
Irregular verbs: form
These vary considerably in their simple past form:
Infinitive: to eat, to leave, to see, to speak
Simple past: ate, left, saw, spoke
The simple past form of each irregular verb must therefore be learnt, but once this is done there is no other difficulty, as irregular verbs (like regular verbs) have no inflexions in the past tense.
A list of irregular verbs will be found on page 49
II. SPELLING NOTES
The rules about doubling the final consonant when adding ing (see p.6) apply also when adding - ed:
admit, admitted
stop, stopped
travel, travelled
Verbs ending in -у following a consonant change the -у into -i before adding -ed:
carry, carried
try, tried
but -у following a vowel does not change:
obey, obeyed.
III. The use of the Past Indefinite.
1. The Past Indefinite denotes a single action performed within a period of time which is
already over. The action is cut off from the present. The time of the action may be
indicated by adverbials of past time, such as yesterday,
the day before yesterday,
a week ago,
last year,
in 1971, etc.
The sun came out a moment ago.
Miss Helstone stayed the whole evening.
Ellean breakfasted two hours ago, and then went out walking with the dog.
The Past Indefinite can correspond to the Russian past perfective and past imperfective (совершенный и несовершенный вид).
Не smoked a cigarette and left the room (выкурил). He smoked in
silence for a few minutes (курил).
The translation depends on the context and the lexical character of the verb.
The time of the action may be implied in the situation through the mention of the place of
the action or other attending circumstances.
I ate turnips in Germany.
Did you belong to any society at the University?
But sometimes the mention of the time or place of the action appears unnecessary because
reference is made to a particular action which is definite in the mind of the speaker and
the hearer.
Sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you.
I slept very badly.
Note: The Simple Past, never the Present Perfect, is used in questions beginning with when, because when implies a certain moment in the past. The answer can be either in the Past Indefinite or in the Present Perfect, depending on the situation:
-
When did you see him?
-
I saw him two days ago.
Or: I have just seen him. (just now)
When did you actually arrive?
The Past Indefinite is also used in special questions beginning with where and how when they refer to the past events. The Present Perfect is not common here because the attention in such sentences is drawn to the circumstances of the action rather than to the occurrence itself, which means that the speaker has a definite action in mind.
Where did your uncle receive his guests?" "Right here."
How did he get in?" I asked, and Evans said, "Oh, he has a key."
Where is my hat? Where did I leave my hat?"
Yet the Past Indefinite may also be found in present time context with such adverbial
modifiers of time as this morning,
tonight,
today,etc.