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

Absolutely Ridiculous English Spelling

Lesson 1. Introduction:

Why does the English language have so many words that are difficult to spell?  The main reason is that English has 1,100 different ways to spell its 44 separate sounds, more than any other language.  Some of the results of this are:	Words that have the same sounds but are spelled differently,
	Words that contain letters that have nothing to do with the way the words are pronounced
	Words that contain silent letters; that is, letters that must be included when you write the words even though they are not pronounced,
	Spelling rules that have lists of exceptions - words that do not follow the rules and thus must be memorized separately.

This situation exists for a variety of reasons.      For some words, the pronunciation has changed over the centuries even though the spelling has not changed.  Some words have been borrowed from other languages, and although they have kept their original spellings,  people over the years began pronouncing the words according to English rules.  Still other words have been borrowed from other languages and have kept their original spellings AND pronunciations, which makes them seem strange by English rules.

The reasons for the Ridiculous English Spelling do not matter, however, because  English is what it is; it has been this way for a long time.  If you want to learn to speak and write it, you must learn it as it is and not how it should be.  Our task is to make that a little easier for you.

Some common inconsistencies:

Pattern	Examples	How they are pronounced
words containing "ough"	thought, bought, fought, brought enough, rough, tough, slough through  though, although, dough, thorough cough bough, doughty	end with sound of "ot" as in POT, NOT end with sound of "uff" as in STUFF ends with sound of Long U, as in the word THREW or SHOE end with the sound of Long O, as in NO or GO ends with the sound "OFF contain the same sound as "COW" or "NOW"
Words that sound the same but are spelled differently.	byte, bite, bight seen, scene hear, here sense, cents, scents their, there, they're feet, feat ate, eight err, heir, air wheel, weal, we'll you, ewe isle, aisle, I'll ale, ail gnu, new, knew	Long i + t Long e + n Long e + r all end with the sound of "-ENCE" or "-ENSE" Long a + r Long e + t Long a + t Long a + r Long e + L Long u Long I + L Long a + L N + Long u
Words containing "ight"	alight, bight, blight, flight, fright, height, light, night, might, right, sight, tight, plight,	In all of these words, "ight" is pronounced like Long i + t.
Words with Silent Letters	gnat, gnaw know, knee, knife, knit, knickers, knuckle psychology, psychiatrist, pneumonia should, could, would isle, aisle, island wrap, wrinkle, write, wrath, wrist, wrought debt, doubt listen, soften, castle, often	All of these words are pronounced as if the red letters were not there, but when you write the words, you MUST include those letters.
Words that look the same but are pronounced differently.	wind - Short i sound wind - Long i sound read - Short e sound read - Long e sound abuse - with z sound abuse - with s sound addict - stress on ad addict - stress on dict combine - stress on com combine - stress on bine defect - stress on de defect - stress on fect	moving air outdoors, part of weather twisting motion, as with a clock spring past tense, got meaning from written words present tense of same verb verb, to injure or do harm noun - injury or damage noun - person who acts compulsively verb - to make dependent on noun - a harvesting machine verb - to put together noun - a flaw verb - to desert
Words with 'oo' that should sound the same but don't.	book, foot, good, hood, look, moor, poor, stood, wood aloof, boom, doom, gloom, soon, bloom, broom, noon, proof, roof, zoom floor, door flood, blood	these words have the same Short U  vowel sound these words all have a Long U sound 'oo' = an O sound as in 'or', 'more' these words have the same vowel sound as 'bud' and 'cud'

Some more inconsistencies:

Ways to spell Long 'U'	shoe, grew, through. do, doom, flue, two, who, brute, duty
Ways to spell Long 'O'	go, show, though, sew, beau, float, bone,
Ways to spell Long 'A'	may, weigh, late, pain, rein,  great
Ways to spell Long 'E'	free, bean, magazine, gene, mete, be, mien, receive, believe
Ways to spell Long 'I'	fine, rhyme, fight, align, isometric, bayou

The chart above is just a small sample of why Spelling Rules in English can be almost as much of a problem as spelling itself.  Notice the "i-e" Rule:

Use i before e, except after c, or when sounding like a as in neighbor and weigh.

• This is a nice, neat little rule concerning words that have the letters i and e together, usually  to form the Long E sound in English: i before e, as in piece or relief.
• Then the rule says "Except after C".  The ie becomes ei , as in receive and deceit. 
• Now, you know that the Long E sound in English can be made by 'ie', unless the sound comes after 'c', in which case it is made by 'ei', (except for those times when the Long E sound is made by 'ee' or 'ea' or 'e' or 'i' or 'oe').
• Then the Rule tells you about another exception - when the i and the e are together in a word and are pronounced like Long A, the e must come before the i.  Examples: neighbor, sleigh, weigh, freight, etc.
• In this one short Rule, there are already  two exceptions to it covering dozens of other words, but that is not the end.  There are many words that do not follow the Rule or its exceptions: seize, weird, neither, either, foreign, sovereign, forfeit, counterfeit, leisure, heifer, protein, geiger (as in 'counter'), height, sleight, feisty, seismograph, poltergeist, kaleidoscope. 

At this point you may ask, "What can I do about it? How can I figure out how to spell the words in this crazy language?" Believe it or not, there are a few things you can do that will help, but after you remember the rules and learn the 'tricks', you are left with this basic technique: Study, Memorize, Study, Memorize, Study, Memorize.

Exercise: For each of the words in the list below, write the definition (from a dictionary) and write a sentence using the word.

1. scene
2. seen
3. scent
4. sent
5. cent
6. err
7. air
8. heir
9. feet
10.feat
11. new
12. knew
13. hear
14. here

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Posted in: Grammer , Learning English

Learn to Write English Clearly and Correctly (SET-2)

Lesson 11, Some Common Irregular Verbs: sing-sang,  bring-brought, go-went

Most verbs in English follow a regular pattern:

Present	Past	Progressive	Future	Compound
I want, you want, we want, they want, he wants, she wants, it wants	I wanted, you wanted, he wantedwe wanted, they wanted	I am wanting, he is wanting, you are wanting, we are wanting, they are wanting	I will want, you will want, he will want, they will want	I have wanted, you have wanted, he has wanted, we have wanted, they have wanted
		I was wanting, she was wanting, you were wanting, they  were wanting		I had wanted, it had wanted, you had wanted, we had wanted, they had wanted

There are no surprises.  Add 'S' for third person singular Present tense.  Normal.  Add '-ED' to form the Past Tense.  Normal.  Add '-ED' to form the Past Participle.  Normal
However, many of the most common verbs in English do not follow the rules.  Here are ten of them.  Each will show the Present, Past, Future, Past Participle and Progressive forms.

v Infinitive Forms v	Present Tense	Past Tense	Progressive Form	Future Tense	Compound (Participle) Form
to be	I am, (you-we-they) are, (he, she, it) is	was	being	will be, shall be	(have) been, (had) been
to have	(I, you, we, they) have; (he, she, it) has	had	having	will have, shall have	(have) had, (had) had
to sing	(I, you, we, they) sing; (he, she, it) sings	sang	singing	will sing, shall sing	(have) sung, (had) sung
to think	(I-you-we-they) think; (he-she-it) thinks	thought	thinking	will think, shall think	(have) thought, (had) thought
to do	(I, you, we, they) do; (he, she, it) does	did	doing	will do, shall do	(have) done, (had) done
to bring	(I-you-we-they) bring; (he-she-it) brings	brought	bringing	will bring, shall bring	(have) brought, (had) brought
to go	(I, you, we, they) go, (he-she-it) goes	went	going	will go, shall go	(have) gone, (had) gone
to drink	(I-you-we-they) drink; (he-she-it) drinks	drank	drinking	will drink, shall drink	(have) drunk, (had) drunk
to take	(I, you, we, they) take: (he, she, it) takes	took	taking	will take, shall take	(have) taken, (had) taken
to make	(I, you, we, they) make; (he, she, it) makes	made	making	will make, shall make	(have) made, (had) made

Some words seem to be part of a pattern (sing, sang, sung and ring, rang, rung), but you will be wrong if you use that pattern for bring (bring, brought, brought).  Take, takes and make, makes look like the beginning of a pattern, but the next forms are took and  made.   What this simply means is that you must STUDY, LEARN and REMEMBER.  There is no other way to be sure.

Exercise A: Fill in the missing words in the sentences below. All will be present tense.

He ________ with me. (go)  =  He goes with me.   She is _______ to town. (go) = She is going to town.

1. I _________ homework every night.  (do)

2. Tina __________ math is difficult.  (think)

3. My friends are __________ cooking classes this year.  (take)

4. Jonathan ____________ my friend. (be)

5. The boy is __________ difficulty riding his bicycle.  (have)

6. My mother ___________ while she cleans the house.  (sing)

7. I always _____________ many books home from school.  (bring)

8. We are ______________ cookies for Christmas.  (make)

9. Young men often ____________ too much soda.  (drink)

10. Mary _____________ to the dentist every six months.  (go)

Exercise B: Change the verbs in these sentences to Past Tense.  Write the new sentences on the lines.

1. Robert makes coffee at the office.

______________________________________________________________________

2. The clowns do funny tricks.

_______________________________________________________________________

3. The horse is drinking water from the pond.

______________________________________________________________________

4. We bring flowers to the teacher.

______________________________________________________________________

5. Martha goes shopping in the morning.

______________________________________________________________________

6. The flowers are very pretty.

_____________________________________________________________________

7. Tom takes his girlfriend out every weekend.

_____________________________________________________________________

8. I am thinking about quitting school.

_____________________________________________________________________

9. My dog has fleas.

______________________________________________________________________

10. Katrina sings terribly.

_____________________________________________________________________

Exercise C: Cross out the incorrect verbs in the following sentences.

1. My brother and sister (was singing) (were singing) in the choir.

2. The photographer (taked) (took) my picture yesterday.

3. Jules and I (is) (are) in the same class.

4, I (am gone) (am going) fishing in the morning.

5. Victoria and Juliet (making) (made) plans for their vacation.

6. The rabbit (went) (is gone) into a hole in the ground.

7. The nurse (was doing) (is doing) her paperwork last night.

8. The student (thank) (thought) about the test question.

9. We (was having) (are having) toast and hot chocolate for breakfast.

10. The policemen (brought) (brang) their prisoners to the jail.

Examination: In the spaces below, write in  verbs that will correctly complete the sentences.  You may use any of the verbs or forms from this lesson.  There may be more than one correct answer.

1. The pilot of the small plane _________________ off from the grassy field.

2. The elephant _____________ a huge mess when it walked into the house.

3. Phillip and Marie ______________ too much champagne at the wedding.

4. Ten large trucks _____________ the circus to town yesterday.

5. The old actor ___________ a terrible time remembering his lines.

6. When we are at church, we _______________ many beautiful hymns.

7. The clerk in the store _____________ to the back room for more bags.

8. Mr. Smith ____________ many different things before he became a teacher.

9. Olga _______________ the last one on the bus.

10. You _____________ this old clock was broken, but it wasn't.

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Posted in: Grammer , Learning English