FORM = TENSE

• Verbs show action:

  • run, jump, punch.

• Verbs also show state of being:

  • is, am, are, was, were

  • (forms of "to be")

• *HINT:  Tense = Time

• Essentially, the English language has four (4) verb tenses.

• However, the first two (2) are the most common in essays:

• (* -ED = past participle, regular or irregular forms)

• (* -ING = present participle)

• SIMPLE PRESENT:

  • ROOT (+s)

  • present/current or habitual action

  • Jane drinks coffee every morning before her English class.

  • “eternal present”

    • works of literature and art are referred to in the present tense

    • (every time you open the text to Hamlet it says…)

• SIMPLE PAST:

  • ROOT + ED

  • completed action

  • Duane finished his assignment before the rest of the class.

• SIMPLE FUTURE:

  • WILL BE + -ING

  • action to be completed in the future

  • Mary Anne will interview Dr. Wilson for her interrogative speech assignment.
     

• PRESENT PERFECT:

  • HAS/HAVE + -ED

  • action that began in the past AND continues still

  • action overlaps 2 time periods: past and present

  • Angel has not smoked a cigarette since her aunt died of lung cancer.

• PAST PERFECT:

  • HAD + -ED

  • action completed before another action in the past

  • action completed by a certain time

    • simple past = I had a dollar.

    • but past perfect = I had had a dollar until I was hungry for a candy bar.

      • with the necessary inclusion of a clause that specifies a time the action stopped in the past (underlined)

  • Before Dr. Housenick could begin his lecture, JoJo had begun to daydream about the holiday vacation.

• FUTURE PERFECT:

  • WILL HAVE + -ED

  • action to be completed before/by a specific time in the future

  • action may have been started in the past, continued in the present, and completed in the future (overlap of 3 time periods)

  • By the time of the Writing Competency Exam, we will have written four essays.
     

• PRESENT PROGRESSIVE:

  • IS/AM + -ING

  • action that is still in progress

  • The vice-President of Student Affairs is considering the students’ proposal.

• PAST PROGRESSIVE:

  • WAS/WERE + -ING

  • past action that took place over a period of time OR past action that was interrupted by another action

  • It began to storm while they were looking for a place to park.

  • She was singing the national anthem as the jets flew overhead.

• FUTURE PROGRESSIVE:

  • WILL BE + -ING

  • future action that will continue for some time

  • “I will be studying for Dr. Housenick’s grammar test all night long,” Jean claimed.
     

• PRESENT PERFECT PROGRESSIVE:

  • HAS/HAVE BEEN + ING

  • action that began in the past, continues in the present, and may continue into the future

  • The city council members have been considering the closure of that school since March of last year.

• PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE:

  • HAD BEEN + ING

  • ongoing condition of the past that has ended

  • Dr. Housenick had been correcting the test when he got too frustrated and went home.

• FUTURE PERFECT PROGRESSIVE:

  • WILL HAVE BEEN + ING

  • action continuing until a specified time in the future

  • Come May, those five students will have been attending LCCC for five years.

  • (* -ED = past participle, regular or irregular forms)

  • (* -ING = present participle)

• (1) Active Voice:

  • the subject is the performer of the verb action.

  • *preferred*

  • Castiglione hit the home run.

• (2) Passive Voice:

  • the action of the verb is done to someone/thing (to be + verb—“was bitten”) (“by”)

  • The home run was hit by Castiglione.

  • At times, the passive voice may be necessary:

    • you want to keep the focus on the person or object acted upon, as opposed to the performer of that action

      • The quarterly profits were significantly reduced by the opening of the competitor’s new store.

      • Here, the focus is on the quarterly profits and not on the opening of a new store.

    • the performer of the action is unknown

      • The suspected terrorist was held for questioning.

      • Here, the person/s detaining the suspect is unknown and unimportant.

      • Also, readers could surmise who was detaining the prisoner based on common sense and knowledge of who has such specialized authority.

• (1) LINKING VERBS:

  • forms of “to be”

    • (is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been)

  • appear, become, feel, grow, look, remain, seem, smell, sound, stay, taste

• (2) HELPING VERBS:

  • part of full verb

  • -ing

• *Note: those LINKING VERBS can function as HELPING VERBS in different sentences.

• CAN-COULD and WILL-WOULD:

• VERB =

  • Helping Verb + -ing

  • Bob was running to across the Quad because he was late for class.

• GERUND =

  • -ing functioning as NOUN

  • Running is a great form of exercise. (no Helping Verb, and names an activity)
     

• MAIN VERB can have a HELPING VERB

  • Jackie was revising her English Composition essay.

• MAIN VERB can be more than one verb

  • (“compound predicate” when the Subject performs more than one action)

  • Barry jumped, danced, and sang after he learned he aced his Statistics exam.

• Because our sentences become more complex as we mature as writers, they often include dependent clauses, which have, by definition, verbs within them.

  • In order not to confuse the MAIN VERB with other verbs that may appear in the sentence, find the Subject and ask, “What did he/she/it do?”

  • “relative clauses” (that, which, who) and

  • “subordinate clauses” (because, since, when, if, although)

  • The professor who had a mental breakdown retired from the teaching profession.

    • "had" is a verb within the relative "who" clause

    • the professor retired = the main Subject & Verb, the  main idea

  • Because it was raining, I brought an umbrella to school.

    • "was raining" is a verb within the introductory subordinate clause

    • I bought = the main Subject & Verb, the main idea