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Time is a concept which is related to our perception of reality. There are three times: past, present and future. Tense is a grammatical category which is marked by verb inflection and expresses when an event or action happens in the flow of time.
Strictly speaking, only two English tenses are marked by the inflection of the verb:
past (talked)
present (talks)
Other tenses are marked by auxiliaries (be, have):
past continuous (was/were talking)
past perfect (had talked)
past perfect continuous (had been talking)
present continuous (am/are/is talking)
present perfect (have/has talked)
present perfect continuous (have/has been talking)
As future time is expressed with the modal will + infinitive and not with inflection, the forms with will (will talk, will be talking, will have talked, will have been talking) are not considered to be tenses. However, for the sake of convenience, we refer to them as such throughout this book.
Therefore, the twelve basic tenses of English are:
| Simple | Continuous | Perfect | Perfect continuous | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Past | Past simple | Past continuous | Past perfect | Past perfect continuous |
| Present | Present simple | Present continuous | Present perfect | Present perfect continuous |
| Future | Future simple | Future continuous | Future perfect | Future perfect continuous |
Note that certain tenses in English may refer to a different time than that expressed by their names. For example, the present continuous tense may refer to either present or future time:
"What are you doing?" "I'm reading." (present reference)
"What are you doing on Wednesday evening?" "I'm visiting my grandma." (future reference)
For diagrams and quotes related to this topic, check out our e-book The Grammaring Guide to English Grammar.
The difference between finite and non-finite verb forms
Finite verb forms
Finite verb forms are marked by inflection and indicate person, number and tense. A finite verb can be the single main verb in a sentence.
The finite forms of, for example, the verb go are:
- go (present tense in all persons except the third person singular)
I go to school in the afternoon.
- goes (present tense in the third person singular)
Mia goes to school by bus every day.
- went (past tense)
Yesterday, we went to school at 9 am.
Non-finite verb forms
Non-finite verb forms do not indicate person, number or tense.
The non-finite forms of the verb go are:
- go (infinitive)
I can't go with you.
Unfortunately, she had to go.
Do you really go out with her?
I didn't go to work today.
I want to go home.
- going (gerund)
I like going to the cinema.
Carol suggested going for a walk.
Going faster would have been really dangerous.
- gone (past participle)
Jack has gone away on holiday.
By the time Sue returned, the others had gone back to their cars.
I wish I had gone to university.
- going (present participle)
I'm going to a concert tonight.
I heard my dad going up the stairs.
Going across the bridge last night, I saw someone swimming in the river.
The infinitive, the gerund and the participle have other forms, which are discussed in detail in the following chapters.
The difference between the gerund and the present participle
It may be worth remembering that a gerund always functions as a noun:
| Function | Example sentence |
|---|---|
| Subject | Hiking can be a relaxing and rewarding activity. |
| Complement | What I really like is travelling to other countries. |
| Object of a verb | Jill suggested going for a drink. |
| Object of a preposition | He rushed out of the room without saying a word. |
| Object of a prepositional verb | Could you give up smoking? |
| Part of a compound noun | We had no drinking water left. |
The present participle has the following functions:
| Function | Example sentence |
|---|---|
| Continuous aspect | I wasn't listening. What have you been doing? You must be joking. I happened to be passing your house. |
| Adjective | The survey revealed some worrying results. The results of the survey were/seemed worrying. |
| Participle clauses | The man driving the car was not injured. Tom lost his keys (while) walking through the park. Opening the envelope, I found two concert tickets. Having nothing left to do, Paula went home. |
Sometimes it is a matter of interpretation whether an -ing form is a gerund or a present participle:
Hunting lions can be dangerous.
Hunting as a present participle functions as an adjective and describes lions. The sentence means:
Lions that hunt can be dangerous.
If hunting is a gerund, lions is its object and the sentence means:
It can be dangerous to hunt lions.
We use 'very' with adjectives - those are words which describe people, places or things to make them more extreme
"London is a big city, but Tokyo is a very big city."
"Einstein was a very intelligent man"
"The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur are very tall"
When we use 'so', there's normally another clause - that's part of a sentence - after it. The 'so' part of the sentence explains why the 'that' part of the sentence happens
"Tokyo is so big that it is difficult for tourists to find their way around"
Einstein was so intelligent that some other scientists had problems understanding his theories
"The Petronas Towers are so tall that they were once the world's tallest buildings."
The first part of the sentence doesn't really make any sense without the second part,
:so although we can say
"The Malaysian grand prix is very noisy"
: it doesn't really make sense to say
"The Malaysian grand prix is so noisy" -
. unless you're replying to something another person has just said
:For example
"I don't like motor sports"
"No - me neither. I went to the Malaysian grand prix and it was so noisy"
.What we mean here is that it was so noisy that she didn't enjoy it
So use 'very' when you don't mean that something is good or bad, just extreme, and use 'so' when you want to add extra information afterwards
.: Weblog Themes By Pichak :.
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