English : julio 2013

jueves, 18 de julio de 2013

Auxiliaries

In modern English, the auxiliary verb for forming the present perfect is always to have. A typical present perfect clause thus consists of the subject, the auxiliary have/has, and the past participle (third form) of the main verb. Examples:

I have eaten some food.
You have gone to school.
He has already arrived in Catalonia.
He has had child after child... (The Mask of Anarchy, Percy Shelley)
Lovely tales that we have heard or read... (Endymion (poem), John Keats)

Early Modern English used both to have and to be as perfect auxiliaries. Examples of the second can be found in older texts:

Madam, the Lady Valeria is come to visit you. (The Tragedy of Coriolanus, Shakespeare)
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name... (Ulysses, Tennyson)
Pillars are fallen at thy feet... (Marius amid the Ruins of Carthage, Lydia Maria Child)
I am come in sorrow. (Lord Jim, Conrad)

In many other European languages, the equivalent of to have (e.g. German haben, French avoir) is used to form the present perfect (or their equivalent of the present perfect) for most or all verbs. However, the equivalent of to be (e.g. German sein, French être) serves as the auxiliary for other verbs in some languages, such as German, Dutch, French, and Italian (but not Spanish or Portuguese). Generally, the verbs that take to be as auxiliary are intransitive verbsdenoting motion or change of state (e.g. to arrive, to go, to fall).

Present Perfect

FORM

[has/have + past participle]

Examples:

You have seen that movie many times.
Have you seen that movie many times?
You have not seen that movie many times.

We use the Present Perfect to say that an action happened at an unspecified time before now. The exact time is not important. You CANNOT use the Present Perfect with specific time expressions such as: yesterday, one year ago, last week, when I was a child, when I lived in Japan, at that moment, that day, one day, etc. We CAN use the Present Perfect with unspecific expressions such as: ever, never, once, many times, several times, before, so far, already, yet, etc.

Examples:

I have seen that movie twenty times.
I think I have met him once before.
There have been many earthquakes in California.
People have traveled to the Moon.
People have not traveled to Mars.
Have you read the book yet?
Nobody has ever climbed that mountain.
A: Has there ever been a war in the United States?
B: Yes, there has been a war in the United States.

The concept of "unspecified time" can be very confusing to English learners. It is best to associate Present Perfect with the following topics:

You can use the Present Perfect to describe your experience. It is like saying, "I have the experience of..." You can also use this tense to say that you have never had a certain experience. The Present Perfect is NOT used to describe a specific event.

Examples:

I have been to France.
This sentence means that you have had the experience of being in France. Maybe you have been there once, or several times.
I have been to France three times.
You can add the number of times at the end of the sentence.
I have never been to France.
This sentence means that you have not had the experience of going to France.
I think I have seen that movie before.
He has never traveled by train.
Joan has studied two foreign languages.
A: Have you ever met him?
B: No, I have not met him.

We often use the Present Perfect to talk about change that has happened over a period of time.

Examples:

You have grown since the last time I saw you.
The government has become more interested in arts education.
Japanese has become one of the most popular courses at the university since the Asian studies program was established.
My English has really improved since I moved to Australia.

Comparatives and Superlatives

Comparatives and Superlatives are special forms of adjectives. They are used to compare two or more things. Generally, comparatives are formed using -er and superlatives are formed using -est. This page will explain the rules for forming regular comparatives and superlatives, and also show some basic ways of using them.

How these forms are created depends on how many syllables there are in the adjective. Syllables are like “sound beats”. For instance, “sing” contains one syllable, but “singing” contains two — sing and ing. Here are the rules:

Adjective form	Comparative	Superlative
Only one syllable, ending in E. Examples: wide, fine, cute	Add -r: wider, finer, cuter	Add -st: widest, finest, cutest
Only one syllable, with one vowel and one consonant at the end. Examples: hot, big, fat	Double the consonant, and add -er: hotter, bigger, fatter	Double the consonant, and add -est: hottest, biggest, fattest
Only one syllable, with more than one vowel or more than one consonant at the end. Examples: light, neat, fast	Add -er: lighter, neater, faster	Add -est: lightest, neatest, fastest
Two syllables, ending in Y. Examples: happy, silly, lonely	Change y to i, then add -er: happier, sillier, lonelier	Change y to i, then add -est: happiest, silliest, loneliest
Two syllables or more, not ending in Y. Examples: modern, interesting, beautiful	Use “more” before the adjective: more modern, more interesting, more beautiful	Use “most” before the adjective: most modern, most interesting, most beautiful

How to use comparatives and superlatives

Comparatives	Comparatives are used to compare two things. You can use sentences with “than”, or you can use a conjunction like “but”. Jiro is taller than Yukio. Yukio is tall, but Jiro is taller.
Superlatives	Superlatives are used to compare more than two things. Superlative sentences usually use “the”, because there is only one superlative. Masami is the tallest in the class. Yukio is tall, and Jiro is taller, but Masami is the tallest.

Simple Future

FORM Be Going To

[am/is/are + going to + verb]

Examples:

You are going to meet Jane tonight.
Are you going to meet Jane tonight?
You are not going to meet Jane tonight.

Simple Future

Simple Future has two different forms in English: "will" and "be going to." Although the two forms can sometimes be used interchangeably, they often express two very different meanings. These different meanings might seem too abstract at first, but with time and practice, the differences will become clear. Both "will" and "be going to" refer to a specific time in the future.

FORM Will

[will + verb]

Examples:

You will help him later.
Will you help him later?
You will not help him later.

Simple Past

The simple past or past simple, sometimes called the preterite, is the basic form of the past tense in Modern English. It is used principally to describe events in the past, although it also has some other uses. Regular English verbs form the simple past in -ed; however there are a few hundred irregular verbs with different forms.

The term "simple" is used to distinguish the syntactical construction whose basic form uses the plain past tense alone, from other past tense constructions which use auxiliaries in combination with participles, such as the past perfect and past progressive.

Regular verbs form the simple past in -ed; however there are a few hundred irregular verbs with different forms.

Questions, other clauses requiring inversion, negations with not, and emphatic forms of the simple past use the auxiliary did. For details of this mechanism, see do-support. A full list of forms is given below, using the (regular) verb help as an example:

Basic simple past:

I/you/he/she/it/we/they helped

Expanded (emphatic) simple past:

I/you/he/she/it/we/they did help

Question form:

Did I/you/he/she/it/we/they help?

Negative:

I/you/he/she/it/we/they did not (didn't) help?

Negative question:

Did I/you/he/she/it/we/they not help? / Didn't I/you/he/she/it/we/they help?

FORM

[VERB+ed] or irregular verbs

Examples:

You called Debbie.
Did you call Debbie?
You did not call Debbie.

Use the Simple Past to express the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past. Sometimes, the speaker may not actually mention the specific time, but they do have one specific time in mind.

Examples:

I saw a movie yesterday.
I didn't see a play yesterday.
Last year, I traveled to Japan.
Last year, I didn't travel to Korea.
Did you have dinner last night?
She washed her car.
He didn't wash his car.

We use the Simple Past to list a series of completed actions in the past. These actions happen 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and so on.

Examples:

I finished work, walked to the beach, and found a nice place to swim.
He arrived from the airport at 8:00, checked into the hotel at 9:00, and met the others at 10:00.
Did you add flour, pour in the milk, and then add the eggs?

The Simple Past can also be used to describe a habit which stopped in the past. It can have the same meaning as "used to." To make it clear that we are talking about a habit, we often add expressions such as: always, often, usually, never, when I was a child, when I was younger, etc.

Examples:

I studied French when I was a child.
He played the violin.
He didn't play the piano.
Did you play a musical instrument when you were a kid?
She worked at the movie theater after school.
They never went to school, they always skipped class.

Past Continuous

FORM

[was/were + present participle]

Examples:

You were studying when she called.
Were you studying when she called?
You were not studying when she called

Use the Past Continuous to indicate that a longer action in the past was interrupted. The interruption is usually a shorter action in the Simple Past. Remember this can be a real interruption or just an interruption in time.

Examples:

I was watching TV when she called.
When the phone rang, she was writing a letter.
While we were having the picnic, it started to rain.
What were you doing when the earthquake started?
I was listening to my iPod, so I didn't hear the fire alarm.
You were not listening to me when I told you to turn the oven off.
While John was sleeping last night, someone stole his car.
Sammy was waiting for us when we got off the plane.
While I was writing the email, the computer suddenly went off.
A: What were you doing when you broke your leg?
B: I was snowboarding.

IMPORTANT

In the Simple Past, a specific time is used to show when an action began or finished. In the Past Continuous, a specific time only interrupts the action.

Examples:

Last night at 6 PM, I ate dinner.
I started eating at 6 PM.
Last night at 6 PM, I was eating dinner.
I started earlier; and at 6 PM, I was in the process of eating dinner.

ADVERB PLACEMENT

The examples below show the placement for grammar adverbs such as: always, only, never, ever, still, just, etc.

Examples:

You were just studying when she called.
Were you just studying when she called?

domingo, 14 de julio de 2013

Present Continuous

Present Continuous

He's Playing The Bass

He's Playing The Guitar

He's Playing The Drums

He's Singing

The Present Continuous Tense

We use the Present Continuous Tense to talk about activities happening now.

Examples

The kids are watching TV.
I am sitting down, because I am tired.
I am not learning German, because this is an English class.
Who are you writing to?

We can also use the Present Continuous Tense to talk about activities happening around now, and not necessarily this very moment.

Examples

Sally is studying really hard for her exams this week.
I am reading a really interesting book now.
How are you brushing up on your English for the trip?
We aren't working hard these days.

The Present Continuous Tense is also used to talk about activities happening in the near future, especially for planned future events.

Examples

I am seeing my dentist on Wednesday.
Polly is coming for dinner tomorrow.
Are you doing anything tonight?
We aren't going on holiday next week.