Verb tense review
A verb is the part of speech that expresses an action.
A verb is the essential part of the predicate of a sentence.
The grammatical forms of verbs include number, person, and tense.There are two main categories of verbs:
1. Action verbs (main verbs, that is, verbs that aren't dependent on other verbs)
2. Auxiliary verbs (also called helping verbs). The two subtypes of auxiliaries are:
a. the primary auxiliaries (be, have, and do), which can also act as action verbs
I am writing. (auxiliary verb)
I am a teacher. (action verb)
b. modal auxiliaries (can, could, may, might, must, etc.)
I can write.
Verbs that form the simple past tense by adding -d or -ed are called regular verbs.
Irregular verbs contrast with regular, that is, they don't have -d or -ed ending in the past tense.
You must memorize them.
One of the most important things about verbs is their relationship to time. Verbs tell us if the action is a fact or a habit (simple present, past, or future); if it is happening at he moment of speaking (progressive or continuous present, past, future), etc. See the chart below. More verb tenses will be discussed later, in other lessons.
VERB TENSES |
Tense | Signal words | Use | Affirmative Negative Interrogative |
| Simple Present | always, sometimes, usually, often, every day | a habit or a fact | I work. He works. Do I work? Does he work? I don't work. He doesn't work. |
| Simple Past | yesterday, last week, (2 days) ago | a habit or a fact in the past (no connection to the present) | He worked with me. Did he work with me? He didn't work with me. |
| Simple Future | tomorrow, soon, next year | promises and predictions | I'll open the window. I think he will help me. |
Present Progressive (Continuous) | now/just now/ right now at the moment Listen! Look! tonight, tomorrow, next Sunday, in the morning | action happening at the moment of speaking arrangement (planned action) in the near future | Look, they are playing football. We are leaving for Gyumri tomorrow. |
Ուշադրություն
Simple present tense verbs have a special form for the third person singular, they take the ending -s (works).
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:
\(1\)st person singular (I) \(1\)st person plural (we)
\(2\)nd person singular (you) \(2\)nd person plural (you)
\(3\)rd person singular (he, she. it) \(3\)rd person plural (they)
The third person singular forms are represented by the pronouns he, she, it.
The chart below shows how the third person singular verb forms change:
Simple present | Simple past |
singular | plural | regular verbs | irregular verbs |
I (work) you (work) he (works) she (works) it (works) | we (work) you (work) they (work) | (worked) | went |
The future simple is usually used in promises.
Օրինակ
I promise I will not tell him about the surprise party.
I won't tell anyone your secret.
I won't tell anyone your secret.
The future simple is used to make predictions that are based on personal judgement, opinion or intuition. Whether or not the event will happen is not certain. Such predictions are often introduced by I think / I don't think / I hope, etc.
Օրինակ
I don't think he'll come tonight.