VERBS, VERB TENSES,

IMPERATIVES
Simple present:
There are seven basic uses of the simple present:
1. Permanent truths
2. The present period
3. Habitual actions
4. Future reference
5. Observations and declarations
6. Instructions
7. Commentaries
Stative and Dynamic verbs
1. We call a few verbs like love stative because they
refer to ‘states’. A state has no beginning and no end.
We don’t ‘control’ it , so we don’t normally use
stative verbs in progressive tenses .
2. Most verbs in English are dynamic. We can use them
in two ways:
- in the simple present tense to describe habits.
- in te present progressive to describe deliberate
actions in progress
3.We can describe three classes of verbs:
a. dynamic verbs which have simple or progressive
forms
b. verbs which are always stative
c. verbs that have stative or dynamic uses
4. There are five groups of stative verbs referring to:
a. feelings (like, love)
b. thinking/believing (think/understand)
c. wants (want/prefer)
d. perception (hear/see)
e. being/having/owning (appear/seem/belong)
How to add ‘-ing’ to a verb (present
progressive)
1. We add –ing to most verbs, without changing the
base form
2. If a verb ends in –e, omit the –e and add –ing
3. A single vowel followed by a single consonant
doubles the final consonant
4. We double the last consonant of two syllable verbs
when the second syllable is stressed
5. -ic changes to –ick , -ie changes to -y
Present progressive tense
basic uses of the present
progressive tense:
1. Actions in progress at the moment of speaking.
2. Temporary situations/actions, not necessarily in
progress at the moment of speaking.
3. Planned actions (+future adverbial reference)
4. Repeated actions with adverb s like always,
forever
The simple past tense
Uses of the simple tense
We use the simple past to talk about events, actions, or situations
which happened in the past and are now finished. We always have to
say (or imply) when the action happened, so we often
We use the past:
-to describe actions which happened in the recent or distant past
-to describe past habit
if we don't use time references (a moment ago, when i was young,
etc.) we imply them:
I saw Fred in town.
I never met my grandfather.
regular verbs:
regular verbs always end with a -d in the simple past.
we usually add -ed to the base form of the verb.
irregular verbs:
-some irregular verbs have the same form in all
parts: hit-hit-hit, cut-cut-cut.
-some change one part only: keep-kept-kept, make-
made-made, sell-sold-sold.
-some change two parts: break-broke-broken, know-
knew-known, ride-rode-ridden.
Going to and other ways of
expressing the future.
Uses of the 'going to' -future compared with 'will'
basics uses of the 'going to' future:
1. predictions
2. intentions
3. planned actions
4. we use will when we decide to do something at the moment
of speaking.
am/is/are to, be about to, be due to
1.we use to be to for:
-formal arrangements/duties
-formal appointments/instructions
-prohibitions
2. to be about to refers to the immediate
future
3. we often use to 'be due to' to refer to
timetables
the future in the past
sometimes we want to refer to events which were
'destined' or planned to take place in the past (the
future-in-the-past). we use was going to, was about
to, was to and was due to. we use thesse forms for:
-events we couldn't foresee
-events whivh were interrupted
we also use would fo 'destiny' in story-telling:
the imperative
some uses of the imperative to express different
functions:
1. wew dont use the imperative just for 'giving orders'
we can use it for: offering, directing, prohibiting,
warning
2. we can make an imperative more polite or more
urgent with do. compare:
-ordinary imperative
-polite imperative
-negative imperative
the imperative with question tags
we can make a request by adding a 'tag' like will you?
to an imperative:
1. we add will you?/won't you/can't you? to express
annoyance
2. we add will you?/could/can you? for neutral
requests
3. we add will you?/won't you? for friendly offers
we show our feelings not just by adding a tag, but
through stress and intonation.
double imperatives joined by 'and'
when we have two imperatives together, we
join them with and (not *to*):
go and buy yourself a new pair of shoes (not
*go to buy*)
the only exception is try. we can say: try and
help or try to help.