Tenses of Verbs Present Tense Past Tense Future

Tenses of Verbs Present Tense Past Tense Future Tense

A verb in the present tense shows action that happens now. • Storm clouds linger above the mountains. • A river of rain sweeps the sky.

Present Tense • Present tense may express action which is going on at the present time or which occurs always, repeatedly, or habitually. • Examples: He sees the train. He eats cereal for breakfast every day.

A verb in the past tense shows action that has already happened. The past tense of a verb usually ends in ed. • Yesterday a gentle fog settled down in the village. • It touched us all with its powdery mist.

Past Tense • Examples: • He wrote the letter yesterday. • She lived to be 90 years old.

A verb in the future tense shows action that will happen. It is usually formed with helping verb will or shall. • Tomorrow the radiant sun will blaze above. • How we shall welcome its warmth and light.

Future Tense • Examples: • He will send the letter tomorrow. • I shall wait here until you return. • * Traditionally, shall is used for 1 st person and will for 2 nd and 3 rd persons.

Regular Verbs • Regular verbs form their past tense by adding –ed or –d to their present tense form. • More than 95% of all English verbs are regular. • Regular verbs cause few problems in speaking and writing.

Regular Verbs • Present tense and past tense verbs can also have participles. • Participles are helping verbs.

Regular verbs and their Principal Parts: Present Past Participle Tense Past call, calls (is, are) Verb: To call To dust, dusts Participle (has, have 0 ( is) calling called (have) called (am) dusting dusted (have) dusted

That’s the basics! But…there’s more to it than that. • There also [present, past, and future PERFECT tenses • There also present, past, and future PROGRESSIVE tenses.

Verb Forms Regular Irregular

Irregular Verbs • Irregular verbs can form their past tense and past participle forms in various way. • These forms cause problems. • The most irregular verb of all is the verb to be. • Another irregular verb that is important for its use with other verbs is the verb to have.

Four Principal/Main Parts Principal Parts: Present Tense Present Past Participle Tense Past be, am, are, is being was, were (have) been having had (have) had Participle Verb: To Be To Have have, has

Conjugation • A conjugation of a verb is the correct arrangement of its form through its tenses, persons, and numbers. • Person means the speaker, the person spoken to, and the person or thing spoken of. • Number means singular or plural.

Conjugation of the verb: to be Tense Present Past Future Singular I am You are He, she, it is I was You were He was I shall be You will be He will be Plural We are You are They are We were You were They were We shall be You will be They will be

Other Common Irregular Verbs and their Principal Parts Principal Part Present Tense Present Participle Past Tense Past Participle saw To do see, seeing sees do, does doing To fly, flies flew To run, runs running (have) seen (have) done (have) flown (have) run Verb To see flying did ran