Basic English the Mikie Metric Way 8

LESSON-8. Using Capital Letters

English uses capital letters to point out important words.  This is the one element of English grammar that always follows its rules.  There are no lists of exceptions to memorize.  That makes it easier for people who are learning English.  All they need to do is:

• learn the rules, and
• follow the rules.

You will see many examples in your everyday life of the rules being violated by advertisers, by graffiti artists and by internet users.  That does not, however, change the rules.  It is important to write English correctly on applications, in resumes, in business letters and in other formal situations if you want the reader to have a high opinion of you.

Rule 1: All sentences begin with a capital letter.

            a. This is my house. (statement)

            b. Are you going to school? (question)

            3. Watch out for the truck! (exclamation)

Rule 2: The proper name, the name of a specific person or thing, begins with a capital letter.  All other important words in the name must also start with a capital letter.  Words that do not need to be written with a capital letter unless they are the first word of the name are a, an, and, the, of, to, by, etc.  (Following each proper name are one or more common names of the same type of person or thing which do not need a capital letter.)

a. Henry David Thoreau (a man, a writer)

b. Empire State Building (a building, a monument)

c. Grand Canyon (a canyon, a geographical wonder)

d. Atlantic Ocean (an ocean, a body of water)

e. Metropolitan Museum of Art (a museum, an institute)

f. Ford Explorer (an automobile, a sport utility vehicle)

g. Harvard University (a college, a university)

h. Union of South Africa (a country, a union)

i.  Saudi Arabia (a country, a kingdom)

j. Saturday (a day, the weekend)

k. September (a month)

l. Memorial Day (a holiday, a special occasion)

Rule 3: Titles of books, songs, stories, works of art, magazine articles, tests, and other written materials must begin with a capital letter.  Every other important word of the title must also begin with a capital letter.  Words that do not need a capital letter unlessthey are the first word of the title are a, an, and, of, to, the, etc.

a. Winnie the Pooh

b. To Kill a Mockingbird

c. The Merchant of Venice

d. The Star-spangled Banner

e. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

f. The New York Times

g. How to Win Friends and Influence People

h. The Carolina Test of Student Ability

Rule 4: The letter I, when used as a pronoun referring to yourself must always be written as a capital letter.

a. I am not happy.

b. Am I the first person here?

c. Tell me what I have to do.

Rule 5: The first word of a direct quotation must begin with a capital letter.

a. "Who's been sleeping in my bed?" Pappa Bear cried.

b. The president said, "Ask not what your country can do for you."

c. The teacher asked, "Can you answer this question?"

Rule 6: Titles of people when used with their names or in place of their names must begin with a capital letter.

a. My boss is Mister Smith.

b. "Look out, Mister! You're in the way."

c. The members of the church waited for Reverend Jones.

d. The captain yelled at Sergeant Harris.

e. The sergeant replied, "Yes, sir, Captain.  I understand."

f. My favorite queen is Queen Elizabeth of England.

There are other uses for capital letters in English, but these six rules cover most of the situations you will come to in your writing.  I started to write about abbreviations, but the more I thought about them, the more confused I became.  In general, abbreviations (short forms of whole words usually made by using the first letter or letters of the whole word with a period at the end to show the word is not complete) follow the same rules for capital letters as complete words do: if the whole word would begin with a capital, then so would the abbreviation.

 a. My boss is Mr. Smith.

b. The members of the church waited for Rev. Jones.

c. The captain yelled at Sgt. Harris.   

d. I work for American Telephone and Telegraph. (I work for A.T.&T.).

Certain factors have made the situation much more confusing.  The United States has adopted a two-letter code for all of the states.  Pennsylvania used to be abbreviated as Penna. or Pa.  Now it is PA  .  California used to be Cal. or Calif., but now it is CA  .  Advertisers add or take away capital letters whenever they feel like it in a attempt to make their ads more effective.  The internet with its domain names and e-mail addresses adding or deleting capital letters according to the requirements of a variety of computer software protocols has also thrown away the traditional grammar rules. 

But in spite of all these factors, the rules of correct writing remain the same.  Follow them and you will be seen as an intelligent, well-educated person by whoever reads what you write.  (Unless you write stupid things correctly.)

Exercise A: Re-write these sentences on the lines and put capital letters where they belong.

1. the mayor of san juan, mayor ortega, decided to retire sunday, july 16.____________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. my friend, tom wilson, bought a new honda accord last week in san francisco. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. yesterday, i finished reading lord of the rings. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. the president of general motors was interviewed in the july issue of newsweek. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 5. david johnson drove his chevy blazer off the delaware memorial bridge last friday. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. when i opened the new york times, i read that lieutenant martin bailey had accused his commanding officer, colonel dunlap, of selling secret information to a north korean agent. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 7. alan attended a lecture by professor c. r. klein on his treatise, "chemical properties of popular diet foods." ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 8. mary yelled to her little brother, "shut the door! it's freezing in here." ___________________________________________________________________________________________

Answers to Exercise A: Following are only the words that should have been written with a capital letter.

1. The, San Juan, Mayor Ortega, Sunday, July

2. My, Tom Wilson, Honda Accord, San Francisco

3. Yesterday, I, Lord, Rings

4. The, General Motors, July, Newsweek

5. David Johnson, Chevy Blazer, Delaware Memorial Bridge, Friday

6. When, I, New York Times, I, Lieutenant Martin Bailey, Colonel Dunlap, North Korean

7. Alan, Professor C. R. Klein, "Chemical Properties,  Popular Diet Foods

8. Mary, Shut, It's

The End

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Basic English the Mikie Metric Way 7

Lesson 7: Pronouncing the English Letters

Vowels: Vowels are letters that are pronounced by forcing air over your vocal cords through your mouth.  It is the shape of your mouth that decides which vowel sound comes out.  There are many tape or video cassette lessons available from schools, libraries and stores which will help you with your pronunciation.  You can also learn a lot by listening to the radio and watching television and films.

Letter	Sounds of the letter	Alternate Spellings	Examples
A  a	The "long" sound of this letter is the same as the name of the letter.	a, a+consonant+e, ea, ei, eigh, aigh, ai, ay, ere	able, late, great, heir, weigh, straight, rain, play, where, there
A a	The "short" sound of this letter is often found in 3-letter and 4-letter words.	a, augh	ad, bad, cat, dab, fact, gab, hat, lack, mat, rap, sad, tap, yak, laugh, draught
A a	The "soft" sound of this letter is like the sound you make when a child is hurt - Aw.	a, aw, augh	father, awful, lawn, taught,
E e	The "long" sound of this letter is the same as the name of the letter.	e, e+consonant+e, ee, ea, ie, ei, y	be, here, cede, meet, bean, thief, receipt, carry, steady
E e	The "short" sound of this letter is often found in short words.	e, ea, ai	bet, chef, dead, fed, head, get, led, met, net, red, pez, said, wet, yet
I i	The "long" sound of this letter sounds like the name of the letter.	i, y, igh, i+consonant+e, ai	I, my, sigh, ride, aisle, file, cry,
I i	The "short" sound of this letter is often found in short words.	i, u	bit, city, click, lid, spin, tin, rip, omit, trip, busy
O o	The "long" sound of this letter sounds like the name of the letter.	o, oa, ough, o+consonant+e, ow,	no, go, boat, coal, though, dough, lone, pole, show, blow
O o	The "short" sound of this letter is often found in short words. It is very close to the "soft" A sound.	o, ough	body, cot, clod, flop, bought, shot, mop
U u	The "long" sound of this letter sounds like the last part of the name of the letter.	u, oo, ou, ough, ew, ue, o, u+consonant+e, oe	gnu, do, boot, through, flew, glue, rude, shoe, uvula, roof, threw, flue, tune
U u	The "short" sound of this letter is often found in short words.	u, oo	but, cut, fun, gun, stud, bum, blood, flood, rump, fuzz

Diphthongs: No,  this is not a type of dinosaur.  When two vowel sounds blend together in a word, it is called a diphthong.  Sometimes the sound is spelled with two letters and other times one letter does the job.  In fact, many of the Long Vowel sounds in English are called Diphthongs by language experts - A  is really a blending of the A and E sounds, I is really a blending of the Soft A and E sounds, etc.  To make matters more simple, however,  in these lessons, we will treat the Long Vowel sounds as pure sounds.  That leaves us with a few very definite Blended Vowel sounds, or Diphthongs.

Description	Possible spellings	Examples
The "soft" A or the "short" O followed by a "long" U sound.	ou, ow, ough	loud, sprout, cow, plow, bough, clown
A "long" E sound followed by a "long" U sound.	ew, eu,	few, feud

Consonants are letters that are pronounced by forcing air through, over or between the various parts of your mouth: palate, teeth, tongue, lips.  Sometimes the sound is made by stopping the flow of air and then releasing it.  Again, examples of the correct pronunciation of these letters can be found elsewhere.  This lessons will deal with the relationship between spelling and pronunciation.

Consonant	How to pronounce it	Examples
B b	Press both lips together and with your vocal cords vibrating,  open your lips suddenly.	baby, boy, bed, bird, table, rabbit, ribbon, black, crab, stable
C c	"Soft" C is a hissing sound with the tip of your tongue pushed against the back of your bottom teeth and the air forced between your tongue and the roof of your mouth.	city, cement, ceiling, cell, cyclops, certain, circle, facet, mice
C c	"Hard" C, like the letter "K", is made by pressing the back of your tongue against top of your throat opening and releasing it suddenly with a puff of air.	can, corn, curl, cable, copper, cut, act, bacon, cry, close, cramp
D d	Push the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth just behind your front teeth, vibrate your vocal cords and release your tongue.	dog, day, dirty, duty, drum, drip, bad, paddle, lid, spread, radar
F f	Press your upper front teeth against your bottom lip. Force air through the opening, then release your teeth from your lip.	father, fence, find, forty, funny, flake, fry, wafer, golfer, lift, safe, stiff, muff
G g	To make the "hard" G sound, close the opening at the back of your throat (back of tongue against rear roof of mouth), vibrate your vocal cords and release the pressure of your tongue.	game, girl, gone, guppy, bag, mug, sugar, bigger, gravy, glad, twig
G g	To make the "soft" G sound, like the letter "J", press the front third of your tongue against your upper front teeth and gums, vibrate your vocal cords and release your tongue.	giant, gentle, gem, germ, gigantic, widget, suggest, gesture
H h	The letter H is pronounced with your mouth relaxed, your jaw slightly open, and with a puff of air being forced from your throat.	hair, heavy, hill, home, hurt, behave, behind, inhale, rehearse
J j	To make the sound of the letter J, like the soft G, press the front third of your tongue against your top front teeth and gums, vibrate your vocal cords and release your tongue.	jail, jet, jiffy, jolly, jump, inject, injure, reject, misjudge
K k	To pronounce the K sound, press the back of your tongue against the rear roof of your mouth, then release it with a puff of air.	kale, kettle, kick, koala, basket, brisket, bucket, pack, stick, luck (note: the letters C and K often work together in the middle or at the end of words to make a single K sound.)
L l	To pronounce L, put the tip of your tongue against the ridge above your top front teeth, vibrate your vocal cords, then quickly release your tongue.	labor, lettuce, lip, love, luck, pilot, pillow, pullet, still, pail, bull, bowl
M m	To pronounce M, press your lips together, vibrate your vocal cords, then open your lips without a puff of air.	man, mend, milk, money, mug, woman, camera, simple, am, seem, come
N n	To pronounce N, put the tip of your tongue against the gums behind your top front teeth, raise the center of your tongue, vibrate your vocal cords, and release your tongue without a puff of air.	name, net, nickel, not, number, many, pint, sentence, run, pin, man
P p	To pronounce P, put your lips together and release them with a puff of air, without your vocal cords vibrating.	pan, pet, pick, pour, punt, rapid, tepid, hoping, strap, step, drop, dump
Q q	Q is always followed by U in English. QU is usually pronounced like KU (with a long U) with the U being held a very short time.	quake, question, quick, quote, inquest, require, liquid, sequel
Q q	Sometimes, QU is pronounced like K, usually in the middle or at the end of words.	bisque, toque, briquette, croquet
R r	To pronounce R, open your mouth slightly, raise the middle and back of your tongue toward the roof of your mouth without touching it, and vibrate your vocal cords.	rain, rent, ripe, rot, run, siren, syrup, sorrow, cereal, far, tear, north, year, fur
S s	To pronounce S, put the tip of your tongue behind your bottom front teeth, raise the rest of your tongue almost to the roof of your mouth, and let air hiss through the narrow opening.	sand, set, sick, some, such, basket, fiscal, posture, mustard, pass, miss, rest, yes
S s	At times, S is pronounced like the letter Z, with your mouth in the same position, but now with your vocal cords vibrating.	was, wisdom, trees, toes, bores, cows, cleans, tears, pours, claws
T t	To pronounce T, put the tip of your tongue behind your top front teeth and release it with a little puff of air.	tape, ten, time, top, tune, water, center, mister, poster, custard, sat, wet, fit, not, cut
V v	To pronounce V, place your top front teeth against your bottom lip (as with F), but then without releasing air,  vibrate your vocal cords and release your teeth from your lip.	vase, very, vital, Volvo, waver, never, river, oven, lover, wave, leave, dive, favor
W w	To pronounce W, purse (round) your lips as if you are going to pronounce Long U. Vibrate your vocal cords for a very short U sound, then open your lips to pronounce the next sound in the word.	want, west, winter, wove, wool, beware, unwind, lower, tower
X x	X is usually pronounced like a K and S together except for the few words that begin with X, in which case X is pronounced like Z.	fax, text, mix, box, deluxe, relax, fixer, xylophone, xenon, xylene
Y y	Y is more like a vowel than a consonant. You pronounce it by forming your mouth to say a Long E sound, vibrate your vocal cords, then quickly go on to pronounce the next vowel sound in the word.	yard, yam, yet, year, young, yip, player, lawyer
Z z	To pronounce Z, put the tip of your tongue behind your bottom front teeth and raise the rest of your tongue until it almost touches the roof of your mouth.  Then vibrate your vocal cords and let air escape through the narrow opening.	zap, zero, zing, zone, zoo, maze, doze, size, lazy, buzz, faze
CH	To pronounce CH, press the whole width of your tongue against the roof of your mouth behind your top front teeth, then release your tongue just enough to let a wide hiss of air come out.	chair, chess, chin, chore, chum, teacher, church, winch, such (Note: many words will use TCH to stand for the CH sound.)watch, fetch, witch, pitcher
SH	To pronounce the SH sound, place the whole width of your tongue close to the roof of your mouth behind your top front teeth, but without touching the roof, then let air slowly escape through the opening.	ash, mesh, fish, wash, posh, bush, masher, usher, shape, shin, shop, shut
TH (voiced)	To pronounce the Voiced TH, put the tip of your tongue between your top and bottom front teeth and vibrate your vocal cords, then pull your tongue back to pronounce the rest of the word.	than, then, this, there, that, either, weather, other, bather, smooth, clothe, scythe
TH (unvoiced)	To pronounce the Unvoiced TH, put the tip of your tongue between your top and bottom front teeth and let air escape around your tongue, without your vocal cords vibrating.	thank, thin, think, thought, thump, therapy, bath, with, moth, path, youth

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Basic English the Mikie Metric Way 6

Lesson 6: The different forms of verbs

Most languages use different forms - that is, different spellings or special endings -with their verbs to tell us whether the action took place in the past, is happening right now, is going to take place sometime in the future, happens often, or might not happen at all.  This is true of English.  Also, like other European languages with which we are familiar, many of the most commonly used verbs have the most irregular forms.  You can study several of these irregular verbs in Lesson 11 in the  Learn to Write Englishseries.

This Basic English lesson will explain to you what the verb forms are and when you need to use them.

Regular Verbs:

The infinitive form is made by adding the word "to" to the  Present Tense.  This is the base from which all the other forms are built.  It does not show any particular time for the action.  (Examples: to park, to watch, to call)

The Present Tense is used to talk about something that is taking place now or that takes place on a regular basis.

Examples:

"They park their car on the street."

"Tom watches the football game on television."

"We call my mother twice a week."

In the first two sentences, the action might have taken place just one time or many times - the sentences do not make it clear to us.  Note the difference when we add more words:  "They park their car on the street  when the parking lot is full."  This may have happened once before or many times, but the sentence makes it clear that whenever the parking lot is full, THEY will park on the street.   "Tom watches the football game on television every Sunday."  It is a regular thing for Tom to watch football on Sundays.  He started doing it on past Sundays and will continue doing it on future Sundays.

Present Tense 3rd Person Singular - the form used with HE, SHE, or IT - ends with an ' S '.  Third person means the people or things that you and I are talking about.  (see Basic English Lesson #5) "Mary walks her dog each morning."  "She walks her dog each night, also."  HE sings; IT breaks; the President speaks; the car stops; Mrs. Smith bakes; Gina carries.

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The Past Tense  is used to talk about an action that happened before now, sometime in the past.  The action is finished, completed.  It might have taken place two minutes ago, last week, or a thousand years ago.  The Regular Past Tense is formed by adding -ED to the infinitive form, or by just adding -D if the verb ends with an E (bake + ed = baked). Irregular Past Tense forms are ... well ... Irregular

Examples: 

"They parked their car on the street this time."  The action is over.....the car is now located on the street.

"Tom watched the football game on television last Sunday."  The action is over.  The watching started last Sunday and ended last Sunday.

"We called my mother twice a week."  This tells us that the twice-a-week calls started sometime in the past and ended in the past.  We no longer call my mother twice a week.  Maybe we call her three times a week now, or maybe we don't call at all.  If we said, "We called my mother twice a week while she was sick."  this would make it easier to understand that the two calls a week were for a special purpose - to check up on her while she was sick, and since she is well now, we no longer need to call so often.

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The Present Participle of a verb is made by adding -ING to the infinitive form.  When used with  AM, IS, or  ARE, it  forms the Present Progressive Tense and talks about an action or state that is going on RIGHT NOW!  It started sometime in the past and is still going on.  The Present Participle used with WAS or WERE forms the Past Progressive Tense and is used for actions that began in the past, went on for a period of time, then ended in the past.

Examples:

"I am writing this lesson."  The action is taking place right now and is not finished yet.	"I was writing this lesson."  I began writing sometime in the past, but then I either finished it or got tired of writing, so I stopped working on it.  The writing started, went on for a while, then ended - all in the past.
"They are parking their car in our driveway."  It is happening right now.	"They were parking their car in our driveway."  This began in the past and maybe happened several times, but then for some reason, they stopped parking their car there.  Could it be because we called the police?
"He is waiting for a bus."  The bus has not arrived yet, so he is STILL waiting.	"He was waiting for the bus."  He started waiting a while ago, but he is not waiting now.  Maybe the bus came, or maybe he got tired of waiting.

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The Past Participle  of a verb must also be used with a helping verb.  The Past Participle with HAVE or HAS forms the Present Perfect Tense.  The Past Participle used with HAD forms the Past Perfect Tense.  It will be the helping verb which tells us when the action takes or took place.

Examples: 

"They have parked their car on the street."  This usually refers to a single action that took place in the past, with the idea that the car is still there.  "They have parked their car on the street ten times."  It still refers to an action that took place in the past, but might happen again.

"He has waited for the bus for an hour."  He began waiting in the past and is still waiting.

"We had called my mother several times."  The calling started in the past, ended in the past, and is over now.

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The Future Tense  of a verb is made from the Present Tense form plus auxiliary verbs such as WILL and SHALL.  Often,  the phrase IS GOING plus the Infinitive Form of a verb is used to talk about the future, although it is not a true future tense.  SHALL is used with I or WE (first person) subjects; WILL is used with YOU, HE and THEY subjects (second and third person).  The Future Tense  is used to talk about an action that has not happened yet, but that is expected to happen sometime in the future.  The future can be in a few minutes, tomorrow or next year.

Examples:

"They will park their car on the street."  Parking their car on the street is an action THEY plan to take.

" We shall wait ten minutes more."  This puts a definite limit on the length of time WE expect to wait.

"He is going to call his mother tomorrow."  This tells us what action HE is planning to do in the future.

There are several other combination verb forms, each with its own special purpose and an official grammar title, but we will not cover them in this lesson.  The main purpose for explaining what we have so far is to help you understand a chart like the one below, or to help you understand a listing for a verb in a dictionary where the principle parts of the verb are often given before the definition.  In fact, this is a good reason to look up a verb in a good dictionary - to find out if the verb is irregular and if so, what the irregular forms are.

Infinitive (base) form	Present tense (with 3rd person singular)	Past tense	Present Participle	Past Participle
to park	park, parks (-s)	parked  (-ed)	parking  (-ing)	parked  (-ed)
to sing	sing, sings  (-s)	sang	singing (-ing)	sung
to carry	carry, carries  (-ies)	carried (-ied)	carrying  (-ing)	carried  (-ied)
to write	write, writes  (-s)	wrote	writing (drop e before -ing)	written
to take	take, takes  (-s)	took	taking (drop e before -ing)	taken
to be	am, is (singular), are(plural)	was (3rd person singular), were	being (-ing)	been
to set	set, sets  (-s)	set	setting  (double T, add -ing)	set
to think	think, thinks  (-s)	thought	thinking (-ing)	thought
to drink	drink, drinks (-s)	drank	drinking (-ing)	drunk
to have	have, has	had	having (drop E before -ing)	had

NOTE: A dictionary will list regular endings in parentheses ( ) as we have in the chart above (-s), (-ed), (-ing) if it lists them at all.  If the form is irregular or includes spelling changes (took, carried), they will be written in full.  Some of the spelling changes from the list above will be illustrated or explained in theSpelling Lessons on this site.

Progressive and Perfect Verb Tenses

A reminder: a tense is a form of the verb that shows the time of the action.

For example, "ate" is a form of the verb "eat", and it shows the action happened in the past.

"Thinks" is a form of the verb "think", and it shows the action happens in the present.

  There are three Simple Tenses. We call them Simple because they merely express the time of the action.

  These are:

Simple Past ("Lisa worked yesterday.")

Simple Present ("Lisa works every day.")

Simple Future ("Lisa will work next week.")

All these verbs simply state the time of the action (past, present or future).  So far, so good. Here is where things get a little more interesting.

  When using the English language you can choose to communicate additional data about the action. Specifically, is the action ongoing or finished?  

In the sentence "I am eating lunch right now", the verb indicates the action is still ongoing � it continues. I am in the middle of having lunch.

  In the sentence "I have eaten lunch already", the verb indicates the action is finished. I am no longer eating lunch.  Now let's dive a little deeper.

Progressive (Continuous) Tenses

  "Progressive" means "ongoing, continuing". The action is in progress.  We usually use the Progressive Tenses when we want to emphasis the fact that the action continues.

Present Progressive is a form of the verb that shows the action is in progress.

  I am waiting for the bus right now. (The action is in progress at this moment.)

I am writing my third book. (The action is in progress these days.)

Past Progressive is a form of the verb that shows the action was in progress.

  Yesterday at five o'clock I was waiting for the bus. (The action was in progress yesterday at five o'clock.)

  I was writing my third book the entire summer. (The action was in progress last summer.)

Future Progressive is a form of the verb that shows the action will be in progress.

  Tomorrow at nine o'clock I will be waiting for the bus. (The action will be in progress tomorrow at nine o'clock.)

  I will be writing my third book the following winter. (The action will be in progress next winter.)

Perfect Tenses

"Perfect" means "complete, finished". The action is finished.  We usually use the Perfect Tenses when we want to emphasis the fact that the action is complete.

Present Perfect is a form of the verb that shows the action is finished already.

  I have written my homework. (The action is already complete. My homework is finished.)

  I have watched this movie already. (The action is already complete. I have the experience of watching this movie.)

Past Perfect is a form of the verb that shows the action was finished already.

  I had written my homework before she came. (The action was already complete when she arrived.)

  I had watched that movie before she offered to rent it. (I watched the movie, and later she offered to rent it. At that point I already had the experience of watching it.)

Future Perfect is a form of the verb that shows the action will be finished.

  By the time she comes, I will have written my homework. (The action will be complete before she arrives.)

  We will have watched that movie by midnight. (We will watch the movie, and we will finish watching it before midnight.)

Why do you need to worry about all the different forms?  The best reason is so you can be fairly sure that the person you are writing to will understand exactly what you mean.  If you use the wrong verb form, the reader of your words will not know for sure if something happened but is finished now, or if it is still going on, or if you are not positive that it happened at all.  It is all part of CLEAR, ACCURATE COMMUNICATION.  

N

OTE: It is more important to use the correct verb forms and tenses than it is to know all the grammar terms.  Please do not be discouraged by terms such as Present Progressive and Past Perfect.  Study the examples given in this lesson.  Read English every time you have the chance.  Try to decide what the verbs are telling you.  Ask questions if you do not understand something.

Exercise A:  Circle the verbs in the following sentences.  Above the verbs, write the tense or form.  Use a good English dictionary or text book to find verbs that are not in the list above.  Examples of tenses or forms:  INFINITIVE = inf., PRESENT = pres.,  PAST = past,  PRESENT PARTICIPLE = pres. part., PAST PARTICIPLE = past part., FUTURE = fut.; PRESENT PROGRESSIVE = pres. prog.; PAST PROGRESSIVE = past prog.; PRESENT PERFECT = pres. perf.; PAST PERFECT = past perf. 

1.  Mr. Jones had gone to the store to buy a loaf of bread.

2. I listen to the radio while I do my homework.

3. Steve was driving his new car to work.

4. Everybody in the office was working when the lights went out.

5. Sally said she will write me a letter when she gets to Miami.

6. Have you seen the new television show?

7. Many people drink coffee for breakfast, but others prefer to drink tea.

8. Anna, who sang in the musical stage play, had also sung in her church choir.

9. He is sick now, but he will  be better soon.

10. It has been difficult to learn English without a teacher, but you will succeed someday.

Exercise B:  For practice and for your own information.  Find an English-language newspaper, magazine or book and pick out 10 verbs.  Write those verbs in the correct column in the chart below, then fill in all the principle forms of each verb.  Use a dictionary.  If you need help, ask someone where you live or E-mail us.

Example:  From the instructions for Exercise B, we will choose USE.  USE is in the Present Tense, so that is where we will write it in the chart.  Then we would add all the other forms of USE - Infinitive (TO USE),  Past (USED), Present Participle (USING), and Past Participle (USED).

Infinitive	Present	Past	Present Participle	Past Participle
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

Answers to Exercise A, Lesson 6:

1.   gone (past participle); had gone (past perfect tense);  to buy (infinitive)

2.  listen (present);  do (present)

3.  driving (present participle); was driving (past progressive tense)

4. working (present participle;  was working (past perfect tense)

5. said (past); will write (future); gets (present, third person singular)

6. seen (past participle); have seen (present perfect tense)

7. drink (present); prefer (present); to drink (infinitive)

8. sang (past); sung (past participle); had sung (past perfect tense)

9. is (present, third person singular); will be (future)

10. been (past participle; has been (present perfect); will succeed (future)

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Posted in: Grammer , Learning English