VERB TENSES

Verb tenses in English indicate the time or the state of the action in a sentence. Here we will review these verb tenses.

The Simple Present Tense

• We form the simple present by using the basic verb (I like, they need). The only change is adding –s or –es for the third person singular (he likes, she needs, it passes).
• We use the simple present tense when :
• The action is general,
• The action happens all the time, or habitually, in the past, present and future,
• The action is not only happening now,
• The statement is always true.

The Present Continuous Tense

• We form the present continuous by using the auxiliary be in the present before the verb and adding –ing to the end of the verb.
• We often use the present continuous tense in English. It is very different from the simple present tense, both in structure and in use. We use the present continuous tense to talk about :
• Action happening now,
• Action in the future.

The Present Perfect Tense

• The present perfect tense is a rather important tense in English, but it gives speakers of some languages a difficult time. That is because it uses concepts or ideas that do not exist in those languages. In fact, the structure of the present perfect tense is very simple. The problems come with the use of the tense.
• We form the present perfect by using the auxiliary have or has and the past participle of the verb.
• We use the present perfect to show that an action began in the past and continues to  the general present.

The Present Perfect Continuous Tense

• We form the present perfect continuous by using have been or has been before the verb and adding –ing to the end of  the verb.
• This tense is called the present perfect continuous tense. There is usually a connection with the present or now. There are basically two uses for the present perfect continuous tense :
• An action that has just stopped or recently stopped. We use the present perfect continuous tense to talk about an action that started in the past and stopped recently. There is usually a result now.
• An action continuing up to now. We use the present perfect continuous tense to talk about an action that started in the past and is continuing now. This is often used with for or since.

The Simple Past Tense

• If a verb is regular, we form the simple past by putting –ed or –d on the end (work, worked/type, typed). If the verb is irregular, there are usually internal changes (get, got) or almost complete changes (bring, brought).
• We use the simple past tense for two main reasons :
• To show that an action happened in the past and is completely finished,
• To show which two actions in the past lasted for a shortter time.

The Past Continuous Tense

• We form the past continuous by using the auxiliary was or were before the verb and adding –ing to the end of the verb.
• We use the past continuous tense for two main reasons :
• To show that an action was in progress at a certain point in the past,
• To show which of two actions in the past was longer.
• We often use the past continuous tense with the simple past tense. We use the past continuous tense to express a long action. And we use the simple past tense to express a short action that happens in the middle of the long action. We can join the two ideas with when or while.

The Past Perfect Tense

• We form the past perfect by using the auxiliary had plus the past participle of the verb.
• The past perfect tense expresses action in the past before another action in the past. This is the past in the past.

The Simple Future

• With all verbs, both regular and irregular, we form the simple future by adding will before the verb.
• We use the simple future tense when there is no plan or decision to do something before we speak. We make the decision spontaneously at the time of speaking.
• We often use the simple future tense to make a prediction about the future. Again, there is no firm plan. We are saying what we think will happen.

The Future Perfect Tense

• We form the future perfect tense by using will plus the auxiliary have plus the past participle of the verb.
• We use the future perfect for two main reasons :
• To show that an action will be completed before a time in the future,
• To make a prediction about actions that are now finished.

ACTIVE AND PASSIVE TENSES CHART

The following is the structure and examples of active and passive sentences

ARTICLES

An article is a kind of adjective which is always used with and gives some information about a noun. There are only two articles a and the, but they are used very often and are important for using English accurately. The word a (which becomes an when the next word begins with a vowel - a, e, i, o, u) is called the indefinite article because the noun it goes with is indefinite or general. The meaning of the article a is similar to the number one, but one is stronger and gives more emphasis.  It is possible to say I have a book or I have one book, but the second sentence emphasizes that I do not have two or three or some other number of books. The word the is known as the definite article and indicates a specific thing. The difference between the sentences I sat on a chair and I sat on the chair is that the second sentence refers to a particular, specific chair, not just any chair. Many nouns, especially singular forms of countable nouns which you will learn about later, must have an article. In English, it is not possible to say I sat on chair without an article, but  a demonstrative or possessive adjective can be used instead of an article as in the sentences I sat on that chair and I sat on his chair. Whenever you see an article, you will find a noun with it. The noun may be the next word as inthe man or there may be adjectives and perhaps adverbs between the article and the noun as in the very angry, young man.

CONJUCTIONS

A conjunction is a word that connects other words or groups of words. In the sentence Bob and Dan are friends the conjunction and connects two nouns and in the sentence. He will drive or fly, the conjunction or connects two verbs. In the sentence It is early but we can go, the conjunction but connects two groups of words. Coordinating conjunctions are conjunctions which connect two equal parts of a sentence. The most common ones are and, or, but, and so which are used in the following ways :

• and is used to join or add words together in the sentence They ate and drank. 
• or is used to show choice or possibilities as in the sentence He will be here on Monday or Tuesday. 
• But is used to show opposite or conflicting, ideas as in the sentence She is small but strong. so is used to show result as in the sentence I was tired so I went to sleep.

Subordinating conjunctions connect two parts of a sentence that are not equal and will be discussed more in another class. For now, you should know some of the more common subordinating conjunctions such as :
    after                    before                 unless
    although              if                         until
    as                        since                   when
    because              than                     while

Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that work together. In the sentence Both Jan and Meg are good swimmers, both...and are correlative conjunctions. The most common correlative conjunctions are :
    both . . .and
    either . . . or
    neither . . . nor
    not only . . . but also

PREPOSITIONS

A preposition is a word which shows relationships among other words in the sentence. The relationships include direction, place, time, cause, manner and amount.

• In the sentence She went to the store, to is a preposition which shows direction.  
• In the sentence He came by bus, by is a  preposition which shows manner.  
• In the sentence They will be here at three o'clock, at is a preposition which shows time.
• in the sentence It is under the table, under is a preposition which shows place.

A preposition always goes with a noun or pronoun which is called the object of the preposition. The preposition is almost always before the noun or pronoun and that is why it is called a preposition. The preposition and the object of the preposition together are called a prepositional phrase. The following chart shows the prepositions, objects of the preposition, and prepositional phrases of the sentences above.

Prepositional phrases are like idioms and are best learned through listening to and reading as much as possible. Below are some common prepositions of time and place and examples of their use.
Prepositions of time :
at two o'clock
on Wednesday
in an hour, in January; in 1992
for a day
Prepositions of place :
at my house
in New York, in my hand
on the table
near the library
across the street
under the bed
between the books

PRONOUNS

A pronoun is often defined as a word which can be used instead of a noun. For example, instead of saying John is a student, the pronoun he can be used in place of the noun John and the sentence becomes He is a student. We use pronouns very often, especially so that we do not have to keep on repeating a noun. This chapter is about the kind of pronoun called a personal pronoun because it often refers to a person. Like nouns, personal pronouns sometimes have singular and plural forms (I-we, he-they). Unlike nouns, personal pronouns sometimes have different forms for masculine/male, feminine/female and neuter  (he-she-it). 

Also unlike nouns, personal pronouns have different forms depending on if  they act as subjects or objects (he-him, she-her). A subject is a word which does an action and usually comes before the verb, and an object is a word that receives an action and usually comes after the verb. For example, in the sentence Yesterday Susan called her mother, Susan is the subject and mother is the object. The pronoun she can be used instead of Susan and the pronoun her can be used instead of mother. The form of a personal pronoun also changes according to what person is referred to.  Person is used here as a grammar word and means :

• 1st person or the self (I, me, we),
• 2nd person or the person spoken to (you),
• 3rd person or the person spoken about (he, she, him, her, they, them).

There is also a possessive form of the pronoun. Just as we can make a noun possessive as in the sentence That is my father's book to mean That is the book of my father, we can make the pronoun possessive and say That book is his. There are possessive adjective forms (such as my, your, his, her, etc.). Possessive pronouns can stand by themselves without nouns, but possessive adjectives, like other adjectives, are used together with nouns. There is also an intensive form of the pronoun which intensifies or emphasizes the noun that it comes after as in the sentence I myself saw him. The reflexive form of the pronoun looks exactly like the intensive form but is used when the subject and object of a verb refers to the same person as in the sentence I saw myself in the mirror.

All of this may sound confusing, but if you study the chart below, it will be clearer :

Notice that the form you is the same for subject and object, singular and plural and that there is no neuter singular possessive form. There are also interrogative pronouns (who, which, what) used for asking questions and relative pronouns (who, which, what, that) used in complex sentences which will be discussed in another place.  Some grammar books also talk about demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those) and indefinite pronouns (some, all, both, each, etc.) which are very similar to adjectives.

ADVERBS

We have seen that an adjective is a word that gives more information about a noun or pronoun.  An adverb is usually defined as a word that gives more information about a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives and adverbs in terms of such qualities as time, frequency and manner. In the sentence Sue runs fast, fast describes how or the manner in which Sue runs. In the sentence Sue runs very fast, very describes the adverb fast and gives information about how fast Sue runs. Most, but not all adverbs end in -ly as in  But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs (ugly is an adjective, supply and reply can both be nouns or verbs). Many times an adjective can be made into an adverb by adding -ly as in nicely, quickly, completely, sincerely.  Adverbs of time tell when something happens and adverbs of frequency tell how often something happens.  Below are some common  adverbs of time and frequency which you should learn :

ADJECTIVES

An adjective is often defined as a word which describes or gives more information about a noun or pronoun. Adjectives describe nouns in terms of such qualities as size, color, number, and kind.  In the sentence The lazy dog sat on the rug, the word lazy is an adjective which gives more information about the noun dog. We can add  more adjectives to describe the dog as well as in the sentence The lazy, old, brown dog sat on the rug. We can also add adjectives to describe the rug as in the sentence The lazy, old, brown dog sat on the beautiful, expensive, new rug. The adjectives do not change the basic meaning or structure of the sentence, but they do give a lot more information about the dog and the rug. As you can see in the example above, when more than one adjective is used, a comma (,) is used between the adjectives. Usually an adjective comes before the noun that it describes, as in tall man. It can also come after a form of the word be as in The man is tall.  More than one adjective can be used in this position in the sentence The man is tall, dark and handsome. In later lessons, you will learn how to make comparisons with adjectives. Most adjectives do not change form whether the noun it describes is singular or plural. For example we say big tree and big trees, old house and old houses, good time and good times. There are, however, some adjectives that do have different singular and plural forms. The common words this and that have the plural forms these and those. These words are called demonstrative adjectives because demonstrate or point out what is being referred to. Another common type of adjective is the possessive adjective which shows possession or ownership. The words my dog or my dogs indicate that the dog or dogs belong to me. I would use the plural form our if the dog or dogs belonged to me and other people. The chart below shows the forms of possessive adjectives.

*Person is used here as a grammar word and has these meanings :

• 1st person or the self (I, me, we),
• 2nd person or the person spoken to (you)
• 3rd person or the person spoken about (he, she, him, her, they, them).

VERBS

A verb is often defined as a word which shows action or state of being. The verb is the heart of a sentence - every sentence must have a verb. Recognizing the verb is often the most important step in understanding the meaning of a sentence. In the sentence The dog bit the man, bit is the verb and the word which shows the action of the sentence. In the sentence The man is sitting on a chair, even though the action doesn't show much activity, sitting is the verb of the sentence.  In the sentence She is a smart girl, there is no action but a state of being expressed by the verb is. The word be is different from other verbs in many ways but can still be thought of as a verb. Unlike most of the other parts of speech, verbs change their form. Sometimes endings are added (learn - learned) and sometimes the word itself becomes different (teach-taught). The different forms of verbs show different meanings related to such things as tense (past, present, future), person (first person, second person, third person), number (singular, plural) and voice (active, passive). Verbs are also often accompanied by verb-like words called modals (may, could, should, etc.) and auxiliaries(do, have, will, etc.)  to give them different meanings.

One of the most important things about verbs is their relationship to time. Verbs tell if something has already happened, if it will happen later, or if it is happening now. For things happening now, we use the present tense of a verb; for something that has already happened, we use the past tense; and for something that will happen later, we use the future tense. Some examples of verbs  in each tense are in the chart below :

Verbs like those in the chart above that form the past tense by adding -d or -ed are called regular verbs. Some of the most common verbs are not regular and the different forms of the verb must be learned. Some examples of such irregular verbs are in the chart below :  
 
The charts above show the simple tenses of the verbs. There are also progressive or continuous forms which show that the action takes place over a period of time, and perfect forms which show completion of the action. These forms will be discussed more in other lessons, but a few examples are given in the chart below :

Simple present tense verbs have a special form for the third person singular. Singular means "one" and plural means "more than one". Person is used here to show who or what does the action and can have the following forms :

•     1st person or the self (I, we)
•     2nd person or the person spoken to (you)
•     3rd person or a person not present (he, she, it, they)

The third person singular forms are represented by the pronouns he, she, it. The chart below shows how the third person singular verb form changes :
A verb must "agree" with its subject. Subject-verb agreement generally means that  the third person singular verb form must be used with a third person subject in the simple present tense. The  word be - the most irregular and also most common verb in English - has different forms for each person and even for the simple past tense. The forms of the word be are given in the chart below :
Usually a subject comes before a verb and an object may come after it. The subject is what does the action of the verb and the object is what receives the action. In the sentence Bob ate a humburger, Bob is the subject or the one who did the eating and the hamburger is the object or what got eaten. A verb which has an object is called a transitive verb and some examples are throw, buy, hit, love. A verb which has no object is called an intransitive verb and some examples are go, come, walk, listen.
 
As you can see in the charts above, verbs are often made up of more than one word. The future forms, for example, use the word will and the perfect forms use the word have. These words are called helping or auxiliary verbs. The word be can serve as an auxiliary and will and shall are also auxiliary forms. The chart below shows two other verbs which can also be used as auxiliaries :
There is a type of auxiliary verb called a modal which changes the meaning of a verb in different ways. Words like can, should, would, may, might, and must are modals and are covered in other lessons. There are other lessons that cover the use of verbs. This lesson presents some of the important features of verbs and also shows some common forms. 

For friends who need a list of regular verbs please download the following link : Regular Verbs
or who need a list of irregular verbs please download the following link : Irregular Verbs

NOUNS

A noun is often defined as a word which names a person, place or thing. Here are some examples of nouns : boy, river, friend, Mexico, triangle, day, school, truth, university, idea, John F. Kennedy, movie, aunt, vacation, eye, dream, flag, teacher, class, grammar. John F. Kennedy is a noun because it is the name of a person; Mexico is a noun because it is the name of a place; and boy is a noun because it is the name of a thing. Some grammar books divide nouns into 2 groups - proper nouns and common nouns. Proper nouns are nouns which begin with a capital letter because it is the name of a specific or particular person place or thing. Some examples of proper nouns are : Mexico, John F. Kennedy, Atlantic Ocean, February, Monday, New York City, Susan, Maple Street, Burger King. If you see a word beginning with a capital letter in in the middle of a sentence, it is probably a proper noun. Most nouns are common nouns and do not begin with a capital letter. Many nouns have a special plural form if there is more than one. For example, we say one book but two books.  Plurals are usually formed by adding an -s (books) or -es (boxes) but some plurals are formed in different ways (child - children, person - people, mouse - mice, sheep - sheep).

PARTS OF SPEECH

Learning about the parts of speech is the first step in  grammar study just as learning the letters of the alphabet is the first step to being able to read and write. From learning the parts of speech we begin to understand the use or function of words and how words are joined together to make meaningful communication. To understand what a part of speech is, you must understand the idea of  putting similar things together into groups or categories. Let's look at some examples of categories.

Colors, fruits, drinks, and languages are categories. If I tell you that Grebo is a language, you would understand exactly what Grebo is.  If we did not have the category language, it would be hard to explain what is meant by the word Grebo. It is very convenient to have categories to talk about similar things.  Let's look at some more examples of categories. In the list below, which does not belong with the others?

• violin
• hammer
• drums
• piano
• guitar

If  you chose hammer, you are right. Violin, drums, piano, and guitar are used to make music, but a hammer is not used to make music.  Hammer doesn't fit with the other words because it is a tool and all of the others are musical instruments. Let's try another example. Which of these does not belong with the others?

• hammer
• saw
• violin
• screwdriver
• wrench

This time, the word violin does not belong because it is not a tool.  It is very useful to have categories like musical instruments and tools to organize our ideas. The parts of speech are categories used to organize or classify words according to how they are used.  We use parts of speech as a way to make it easier to talk about language. The philosopher Aristotle and later scientists studied animals and classified them according to what they have in common.  For example, eagles, robins and sparrows are kinds of birds; sharks, salmon and tuna are kinds of fish; and dogs, horses and elephants are kinds of mammals.  Aristotle and others also studied language and classified words according to what they have in common.  We usually use 8 categories or parts of speech to classify all the words we use in English. This classification is not perfect. Sometimes it is hard to tell which category a word belongs in. The same word may belong in different categories depending on how it is used. There may be better ways to classify English than by using the 8 parts of speech. But this classification has been used for a long time and many grammar books use it, so it is easier to keep on using it.  It is possible to speak or learn a language without  knowing the parts of speech, but for most of  us, knowing about  parts of speech makes things easier. Here is an example of  how it can be helpful to know about the parts of speech. Look at  the sentence : The man surreptitiously entered the room. You probably don't know the meaning of the word surreptitiously, but if you know about parts of speech, you will recognize that it is an adverb and that it tells you something about how the man entered the room. You may still not understand the exact meaning of the word, but you can understand the whole sentence better than if you did not know about parts of speech.

When you look up a word in a dictionary, you will find not only the meaning of the word but also what part of speech it is. This information is very helpful in understanding the full meaning of the word and knowing how to use it. The 8 parts of speech that are used to describe English words are:

• Nouns (kata benda)
• Verbs (kata kerja)
• Adjectives (kata sifat)
• Adverbs (kata keterangan)
• Pronouns (kata ganti)
• Prepositions
• Conjunctions
• Articles

This set of lessons will teach you about each of the parts of speech and show how they are different from each other. They will help you recognize which part of speech each word in a sentence is and that will help you become a better reader.