Academic Writing
Session 3 – Tense and Aspect
Session Overview
In this session, we will continue to look at some basic issues in English Grammar that will enable you write correct sentences. We will focus our attention on the verb and discuss comprehensively.
OBJECTIVES
•By the end of this section, you should be able to
–identify what a verb is
–identify the various forms of verbs
–identify the various verb tenses in English
–use verbs in the correct tense
–note the difference between the active and the passive voice
Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:
•Verbs
•Verb Forms
•Verb Tense
•Voice
Reading List Read
a)University Grammar Of English By Quirk & Greenbaum(1973)
b)Oxford Practice of Grammar by Yule (2006)
c)A Communicative Grammar Of English By Leech & Svartvik(2003)
Topic One
VERBS
•As has been mentioned in the introduction, verbs are the foundation words of sentences. The verb gives the sentence meaning by saying something about the nouns or pronouns that are the subjects or the objects.
•Also note that a verb is a word that shows physical or mental action, or a state of being of a noun or pronoun. Let us take a look at the following examples.
–We run five miles each day. (action)
–John chose the winner. (action)
–The new student became our friend. (state of being)
–Mr. Ativo is a teacher. (state of being)
•There is another group of verbs referred to as helping verbs. Helping verbs or auxiliary verbs, as their name suggest, help the main verb express action or state of being. All modals are helping verbs. Examples of modal verbs are: will, could, should, and must. In addition to modal verbs, the verb be, do, and have are also helping verbs although they can also be the main action, or state of being verb in a sentence. Some examples are:
1.The plane will arrive on time.
2.The bicycle’s chain has become rusty.
3.He doesn’t go to school.
4.She is going to the market.
•In the sentences above, the helping verbs are underlined and the main verbs in the sentence are written in bold face. The helping verb ‘will’ helped to form what we call the future tense, something that we are expecting to happen in the future.
•The verb ‘has’, helped in forming what we call the perfect tense and ‘do’ helped in forming a negative sentence in the present simple tense. We are able to form the progressive form of the main verb ‘go’ with the help of the auxiliary verb ‘be’. If you try taking out the helping verbs from the sentences, the sentences will still communicate something but with the wrong verb form. However, if we take the main verb (those written in bold face) out of the sentences, we cannot make any sense out of the sentences.
•The three helping verbs, except the modals can also behave as main verbs in a sentence. This is exemplified in the sentences below.
I am a soldier. (state of being)
I have a car. (state of being)
I do all my assignments. (action)
•The only verbs we have in the sentences above are the verbs be, have, and do and they are the main verbs of the sentences.
Topic Two
VERB FORMS
•All verbs, (except the verb to be), has four forms. These are the present or base form, the present participle form, the past form, and the past participle form. The base form is the verbs form used with the infinitive (to) as in to walk, to talk, to sleep. The base form is what is used in the present simple form except that, for the third person singular (he, she, it), -s or –es is added to the base form. The present participle form is the base form together with –ing.
•Some verbs have the same form for the past and the past participle, while others have different forms for the present, past, and past participle forms. Some verbs are considered regular and others considered irregular. Regular verbs form their past and past participle by adding -d or –ed to the end of the verb. Irregular verbs follow no pattern in forming their past and past participles.
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Thank You!
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