С оставитель А.С Вейхман , ст. преп. каф. англ. яз.

Учебные материалы по практической грамматике английского языка для I курса специального факультета. Учебно-методическое пособие. Изд.2-е, доп. и перераб. Перм. гос. пед. ун-т. Сост. А.С Вейхман , Пермь, 2000

Пособие “Учебные материалы по практической грамматике английского языка для I курса специального факультета” состоит из трех частей. Первая часть представляет собой справочник, включающий сведения о значении и правилах употребления личных форм английского глагола. Вторая часть – комплекс разнообразных грамматических упражнений, градуированных по трудности. Третья часть состоит из тестов с ключами, направленных на контроль правил чтения, лингвострановедческих знаний, грамматических и лексических навыков; они позволяют студентам проверить и систематизировать свои знания по английскому языку.

Печатается по решению редакционно-издательского совета университета

Ответственный за выпуск Л.А.Чистякова , ст. преп. каф. англ. яз.

ISBN 5-85218-065-3

Пермский государственный педагогический университет, 2000

Tenses in the active voice

There are four tense groups in English. They differ in character of actions they denote. They are: the Indefinite form, the Continuous form, the Perfect form and the Perfect Continuous form.

The indefinite form

The Indefinite form merely shows that the action takes place in the present, took place in the past, or will take place in the future. The form of the verb gives no indication as to the duration or completion of the action.

The Present Indefinite Tense

I. The Present Indefinite Tense is used:

a) to express actions permanently characterizing the subject:

My brother studies English.

She works at a plant.

He speaks English well.

b) to express a habitual (repeated) action which is often indicated by such adverbs as: every day, often, usually, never, always, whenever and some others:

He usually gets up early.

We go to the Institute every day.

My friend often comes to see me.

c) to express a general truth:

The sun rises in the East.

February comes after January.

Water boils at 100 ° (degrees).

d) to express an action going on at the present moment with the verbs of feeling and perception (to see, to hear, to understand, to know, to love, to hate, etc) and with the verbs: to say, to ask which are usually not used in the continuous tenses:

Mr. White doesn’t understand French.

Old Mrs. Sandford doesn’t hear well.

She loves her husband.

She says she is busy.

e) to express a further action in the subordinate clauses of time and condition:

Mr. White will see Mr. Sandford if he comes to see him tomorrow.

I shall tell her about it when I see her.

II. The Present Indefinite Tense is formed in the following way:

a) the affirmative form is formed by means of the Infinitive without the particle to. Only the third person singular takes the ending -s, -es:

I write - he writes.

We watch - she watches

b) the interrogative and negative forms are formed by means of the auxiliary verb to do and the Infinitive of the notional verb:

Do you write novels?

She doesn’t write novels.

III. The pronunciation of -s, -es:

reads [rı:dz]	takes [teıks]	studies ['st⋀dız]
passes ['pɑ:sız]	goes [gouz]	does [d⋀z]
Mind: says [sez]

IV. The spelling rules of the third person singular:

to play - plays

to fix - fixes

to cry - cries

The Past Indefinite Tense

I. The Past Indefinite Tense is used:

a) to express an action which took place in the past and has no connection with the present. The time of the action is either understood or indicated by adverbs of past time or phrases such as: yesterday, last week (month, year), a minute ago (two years ago), at ten о 'clock, in 1945, on Sunday:

He came back from Moscow last week.

She got up at seven о 'clock yesterday.

b) after when in questions and in subordinate clauses of time:

When did the lecture begin?

When did he see her last?

He got excellent marks when he worked much.

When he came home he saw Mike there.

c) to express a repeated action in the past:

Every day he came to the library and read English books there.

He often worked in the language laboratory when he was a student.

My friend always kept his word.

NOTE: The construction used to + infinitive is also used to express a repeated action in the past:

He often came to see us in winter.

He used to come to see us in winter.

d) to express a succession of the past actions:

He came home, had dinner, read the newspaper and began to do his lessons.

He came up to the desk, took a sheet of paper and began to write a letter to his mother.

II. a) The Past Indefinite Tense of regular verbs is formed by adding -ed to the Infinitive:

to work - worked

to live - lived

to rain – rained

The irregular verbs have a special form of the Past Indefinite Tense:

to go - went

to begin - began

to sit – sat

b) The interrogative and negative forms are formed by means of the auxiliary verb did and the Infinitive of the notional verb without to:

Did you see the demonstration in Moscow yesterday?

He didn’t take part in the meeting yesterday.

III. The pronunciation of -ed:

rained [reɪnd]	played [pleɪd]	looked [lukt]
wanted ['wɔntɪd]	lived [lɪvd]	stayed [steɪd]
added ['ædɪd]

IV. The spelling rules:

	to hurry - hurried	to study - studies
But:	to play - played	to stay - stayed
	to drop - dropped	to stop - stopped
	to travel - travelled