Types of tense forms of the verb in English. Aspective forms of English verbs. Rules for adding an ending - ing

When learning English, most students have difficulties that are associated with a huge number of exceptions to general grammatical rules. All these exceptions must be memorized, recognized in the text or conversation and tried to use correctly. All of the above fully applies to irregular English verbs, the use of which in the past tense gives students a lot of difficulties. The only consolation today is that gradually in modern English many irregular verbs are being replaced by regular ones, which greatly facilitates the process of learning and understanding the language.

Verb classification

All verbs of the English language are divided into semantic, auxiliary, connective, modal and impersonal.

Semantic verbs are those that have an independent meaning that is suitable in meaning in a particular sentence. With the help of auxiliary verbs, complex verb forms are formed. The use of linking verbs is due to the fact that there is a need to form compound nominal predicates, for example, using the most common linking verb to be. In addition to it, common linking verbs can be to look, to get, to become. To express the possibility, necessity or probability of performing any action, modal verbs are used that reinforce the infinitive of the semantic verb used in this particular case. The most common modal verbs in English are need, can, must, may. The impersonal form of verbs in English is a verbal derivative of other parts of speech.

Basic forms of verbs

In English, verbs can have 4 main forms:

• infinitive;
• past indefinite tense;
• past participle;
• present participle.

These forms of the verb are the basis for the construction of other complex or simple verb forms.

The infinitive of a verb is its indefinite form, which very often coincides in spelling with the dictionary form. The infinitive cannot indicate the person, number in relation to which the action is carried out, but only characterizes the very fact of the presence of the action or state and, less often, the time that characterizes the statement.

The past indefinite tense of verbs is used to build the simple past tense in English - Past Simple. It is important to remember that if the verb in front of the student is irregular, then the past tense form will simply have to be memorized - they have no rules for the formation of such a form, each verb acquires a second form according to its own laws, for example, to be - was, were.

The Past Participle or Participle II form of the verb is a past participle used to form the perfect tense of the English language, as well as for the passive voice. If the verb is irregular, then the passive form must be learned separately, since it will most often differ from the second form and is not formed according to the general rules, for example, to do - did - done, where done is the third form of the English verb.

The aspect tense form of the present participle Present Participle or Participle I allows you to form verbs in the present, past and future tense. For example: to give - giving, to work - working.

How tense forms of verbs are formed

Formation of regular verbs

Regular verbs form temporary forms according to established rules. At the same time, the main sign that the student has an infinitive verb is the particle to that precedes it, which sometimes may not be. For example, “You had better rest a bit. “You better get some rest.” The verb rest is used in the infinitive without the to particle.

When forming a temporary form of Past Simple, there is one rule. If the verb is correct, then this form is formed by attaching the ending -ed to the word, for example, to walk - walked, to enjoy - enjoyed.

The formation of the Past Participle for regular verbs coincides with the form of the past indefinite tense and is formed with the ending -ed. The formation of all three forms of regular verbs can be seen in Table 1:

At the same time, the second and third forms of regular English verbs are formed with different features, depending on the initial ending of the infinitive of the word. For example, if the verb in the indefinite form has the ending -e, then when adding the ending -ed, the last letter e of the infinitive is lost (live- lived). If the infinitive has the ending -у, and there is a consonant letter before it, then the ending -у will change to the ending -i with the further addition -ed (cry - cry). With a monosyllabic verb with one consonant at the end, with an infinitive preceded by a short vowel, the consonant at the end of the word will double (stop - stopped), and if such a verb is polysyllabic, then the consonant at the end will double only if the stress falls on the last syllable ( refer - referred, however, order - ordered). At the end of the infinitive of the verb with the letter –l, it will double in the formation of the second and third tense forms (cancel - cancelled).

Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs are those that are not formed according to the basic rules for the formation of language forms - the simple past tense (Past Simple) and the past participle (Participle II). There are several ways to form irregular verbs:

• ablaut, modifying the root of the word (swim - swam - swum);
• suffixes different from those generally accepted in grammar (do - did - done);
• unchangeable (the same for all three times) form (cut - cut - cut).

Due to the uniqueness of each of the forms of irregular verbs, all of them must be memorized. To date, the English dictionary has 218 irregular verbs, 195 of which are very common and used. Recently, there has been a tendency to move away from irregular verbs by replacing their forms with forms formed with the ending - ed, as in regular verbs.

Irregular verbs themselves came into the modern language from Old English, which was once used by the Saxons and Angles (tribes of Britain). Their origin is associated with the so-called strong verbs, each of which had its own type of conjugation. At the same time, there are cases of the transition of regular verbs into irregular ones, as happened with the verb sneak (sneak), which is used today in the form of sneaked and snuck. For this reason, even native speakers often find themselves in situations where they have to demonstrate their own illiteracy and misuse verb forms.

The main forms of irregular verbs that need to be memorized can be found in the Table of Forms of Irregular Verbs (Table 2):

Rules for adding an ending - ing

To form the so-called fourth form of verbs, which is the present participle and is used to formulate sentences in the long English Continuous or when forming a gerund, the addition of the ending verb –ing to the infinitive is used. For example, "I will be reading tomorrow at 5. - I will be reading tomorrow at 5."

At the same time, the ending -ing can be added to the word in the standard form, that is, without changing the main root and the ending of the infinitive, for example, read - reading, can omit the final ending -e (write - writing), can double the final consonant of a monosyllabic word, which is preceded by the only vowel is sit - sitting. Also, the final consonant -r can be doubled if the last syllable is stressed and there is no diphthong (prefer - preferring). With a polysyllabic infinitive, the final consonant will double if the stress in the word falls on the vowel that precedes it (equip - equipping). In British English, the final -l will double if it is preceded by a short vowel (travel - travelling), but in American English this can only be possible if the last syllable of the word is stressed, that is, travel - traveling. And, finally, when the infinitive ends with the letter -y, the ending -ing is simply added to the word (carry - carrying), in addition to 3 exception words - die - dying, lie - lying and tie - tying.

Other kinds of verbs

semantic

Semantic verbs are personal representatives of this part of speech, which have their own lexical meaning and do not need additional words to express the action. The semantic verb will indicate the state or action of the object, and in the sentence it will be a simple predicate. There are most semantic or personal verbs in English:

• to work - work;
• to love - to love;
• to write - write;
• to believe - to believe others.

Linking verbs

Linking verbs are understood as such words that have lost their own meaning in themselves and are necessary in a sentence to link the subject and other members. Links do not demonstrate action, but are only parts of complex nominal predicates in sentences:

• to become - become (Mom becomes very angry when I break something. - Mom becomes very angry when I break something);
• to look - look, seem (You look tired. - You look tired).

Auxiliary

Auxiliary verbs serve as the basis for the formation of various tense verb forms and constructions and do not carry a separate lexical meaning (they do not have their own translation). Auxiliary verbs help the speaker express person, tense, and number in a sentence. These include the verbs to do, to be, to have, may, should, would, shall, will:

1. We are working this week so we shall go to the restaurant next Friday. We are working this week, so we will go to a restaurant next Friday.
2. Will you be free tomorrow? Will you be free tomorrow?

Modal

A group of verbs called modal is intended to determine the lexical meaning and demonstrate the attitude of the one who speaks to the action taking place. Such verbs are not used independently, they are always dependent on the semantic verb nearby. These are the same verbs to be, shall, should, would, as well as the verbs can, could, might, must, ought, need and some others:

1. You could have helped us. - You could help us.
2. You shall not pass! - You will not pass! (I won't let you).

Impersonal

There are 3 impersonal forms of the English verb - infinitive, participle and gerund. Impersonal verbs are verbal nouns, participles, and other parts of speech. There are 3 impersonal forms with endings, and with the infinitive, a verbal adjective or adverb is formed by taking the standard verbal stem together with the particle to, when forming a gerund, the ending -ing is added to the verbal noun, and when the participle is formed, the verbal adjective can be formed using the endings -ed / - en/-ing.

Impersonal verbs can act as the subject in sentences or determine it. However, these words can never act as subject-defining verbs. At the same time, impersonal forms of verbs, unlike adjectives or nouns, can have their own object in the sentence (Building a house is complicated. - Building a house is troublesome.)

The most important difficulty in considering and using impersonal forms of verbs is their differentiation in the formation of the gerund and the present participle with the help of the ending - ing:

1. I saw him passing by. “I saw him pass by. The word passing is here participle and determines the pronoun him.
2. I saw him passing by. “I saw him pass by. The word passing here is the gerund defined by the possessive pronoun his.

Exercises

In order to better learn irregular verbs, experts recommend not only memorizing them, but also performing special training tasks that will help you understand whether students are well oriented in all forms of verbs.

The first effective exercise is based on the fact that the student is asked to enter the missing forms in the table of three forms of irregular verbs, for example:

To consolidate the rules for the formation of the second and third forms of regular verbs, students are recommended to perform an exercise where they will be given tables with regular verbs and their translation, and students will need to correctly form the Past Simple and Past Participle forms, taking into account the rules for converting endings, for example:

The following exercise helps in practicing the competent translation of various verbal forms from one language to another. To do this, you need to take several sentences in various temporary forms in Russian and English and make an accurate translation:

Performing such exercises on a regular basis will help consolidate language knowledge, improve orientation in regular and irregular English verbs, and make speech brighter.

In fact, the article is planned even a little wider: I will tell you how to accurately recognize the aspect tense and voice of a verb in a sentence.

Any form of the verb in English is described by 3-4 words that express time, view and pledge . For example:

Present Simple Active
Past Perfect Continuous Passive

To correctly determine the form of the verb, use the diagram above. In addition, it is recommended to read the articles: and.

At school, they usually talk about 12 / 16 / 26 (underline as appropriate) “English language times” ... However, in fact, this temporary forms verb. There are three tenses in English. Like ours: Past (Past), Present (Present) and Future (Future).

* Strictly speaking, there are two grammatical tenses in English, but today's article is not about that. If you are interested in discussing this, write comments or take a look at.

• Times Past: verbs did, was, were, had or any verb in the second form (V2, Ved).
• Present Time Indicators: verbs do, does, am, is, are, have, has or any verb in the first form (V1, Vs).
• Future times: will.

** would, could, might belong to a special group: .

Step 2: Define the View

It's a little more complicated here. Conventions: V1 - the first form of the verb, V2 - the second form of the verb, V3 - the third form of the verb, Ving - the verb with the ending -ing.

• Simple: the sentence contains only V1, V2 or will + V1.
• Continuous: corresponds to the structure to be + Ving.
• perfect: corresponds to the structure to have + V3.
• Perfect Continuous: matches the structure: to have + been + Ving

The above forms are characteristic of the active voice. Go to step 3 to reveal the passive voice.

Step 3: determine the deposit

Structures for the active voice are written above. Passive voice formula: to be + V3. You can try to determine the pledge without formulas. In the case of the passive voice, an action is performed on the object, and not the object itself performs it.

• Simple Passive: am/is/are/was/were/will be + V3
• Continuous Passive: being+V3.
• Perfect Passive: have/has/had/will have + been + V3.
• Perfect Continuous Passive: not used.

Practicing and learning with examples

1) I don't eat much ice cream. — Present Simple Active, because contains do + V1.
2) I was sleeping in the tent yesterday at 12 o'clock. — Past Continuous Active, because contains was + Ving.
3) The shop was being visited yesterday at 12 o'clock. — Past Continuous Passive, because contains was + being + V3.
4) What have you been doing? — Present Perfect Continuous Active, because contains have + been + Ving.
5) The missing kids have been found. — Present Perfect Passive, because contains have + been + V3.
6) They will be swimming tomorrow at 7 o'clock. — Future Continuous Active, because contains will + be + Ving.

I have tried to cover all the difficult cases. Pay special attention to examples 4 and 5. If something does not fit into the scope of this article, and you still cannot determine the tense of the verb in English, then either you misunderstood something, or you came across: an infinitive, participle, or gerund.

Starting to study any grammatical material of a foreign language, we compare it with the corresponding section in our native language - Russian. The same thing happens when studying tense forms of English verbs. Both Russian and English have three tenses: present, past and future. In English this is

• present- the present
• past- past
• future- future

Each of them has four types:

• simple - simple
• long - continuous
• perfect - perfect
• perfect continuous - perfect continuous

It turns out that in English there are actually twelve basic tense forms.

The English tense table looks like this:

Depending on what character the action has, that is, how often it is performed, when, how long the action took place, etc., we get 4 types of tenses in English.

Group Times Simple

This group includes three tenses of the English language, called simple.

The times of this group indicate actions (state facts), while not indicating their duration and whether they ended

• I sculpt from clay I sculpt from clay(Present)
• My granny loved this garden. — My grandmother loved this garden(Past)
• I will help him. — I will help him(Future)

present simple

In this tense, infinitive forms of verbs are used, as an exception - to verbs from the 3rd person ( he, she) in the singular, the ending is added - (e)s

• I like mountain climbing. — I like climbing mountains
• He likes mountain climbing. — He likes climbing mountains

To construct a question and a negation, we use to do

• Do do you like mountain climbing?
• I do not like mountain climbing
• He does not like mountain climbing

Used:

1. When stating well-known facts
2. With regular or repeated action
3. In a series of successive events in the present
4. In sentences where there are verbs of feelings, mental activity or visual perception
   Download verbs
5. In sentences where there are words indicating regularity:
   • always - always
   • sometimes - sometimes
   • usually - usually

past simple

Past Simple The form of the past tense is formed by adding an ending - ed to the regular verb or the second form from the table for irregular verbs

• I summ ed up the meeting. — I summed up the meeting
• I saw him the day before yesterday. — I saw him the day before yesterday

Question and negation are formed with the help of a verb did:

• Did you sum up the meeting? - You summed up the meeting?
• I did not sum up the meeting. - I didn't sum up the meeting

Used:

1. To denote an action that took place at a certain moment in the past and the time at which the action took place has already ended
2. When listing sequentially occurring events:
   • I came home, took off my boots, opened the window, made tea for myself. — I came home, took off my boots, opened the window, made myself some tea.

Future Simple

This tense is formed with the verb will (‘ll- abridged version)

• you" ll write the articles
• Will you write the articles?
• You will not write the articles

The Future Simple is used to refer to actions that will take place in the indefinite future or at a distant point in the future.

Group Times continuous

Present Continuous

Formed with a verb to be and IV f. verb (the ending is added to the main verb - ing)

conjugation table to be

• 
  We are swimm ing. — We're swimming(it is understood that they are floating at the moment of speech)
• Are we swimm ing? — We're swimming?
• We are not swimm ing. — We don't swim

Denotes:

1. Events that happen at the moment of speaking
2. Actions that will happen immediately after the moment of speech
3. Constant irritants:
   • The baby is crying. — The child is cry ing

Past continuous

To form the form of the long past tense, we need:

1. to be in the past time:
   • was- 1st and 3rd person singular
   • were- 2nd person singular and 3rd - plural
2. The ending - ing for main verbs

• I was rewriting ing I've been rewriting topics all evening
• Were you write ing the topics all the evening? — You've been rewriting topics all evening?
• I was not rewriting ing the topics all the evening. — I didn't rewrite topics all evening

The Past Continuous conveys an action that took place at a certain moment in the past, with an emphasis on its duration.

Future Continuous

Its formula is:

will be+ verb ending - ing

• I "ll be walk ing long. — I will walk for a long time
• Wil lI be walk ing long? — How long will I be walking?
• I will not be walk ing long. — I won't take long walks

Future Continuous conveys an action that will take place at a certain period of time in the future, indicating its duration

Group Times Perfect

Present Perfect

The formula is:

Auxiliary verb of the present tense to have (has)+ semantic verb in III f

To have It also helps in the construction of interrogative and negative sentences.

• I have decid ed the problem this morning. — I solved the problem this morning
• Has he decid ed the problem this morning? — He solved the problem this morning?
• I have not decid ed the problem this morning. — I didn't solve the problem this morning
• He has cut the apples. — He cut apples
  

The Present Perfect is used to denote events that happened recently or the period when they happened has not yet ended.

Table with circumstances of time that indicate the perfect the present:

past perfect

The shaping of the Past Perfect differs from the Present Perfect only in that to have takes the form of the past tense, becoming had, the rest is the same scheme.

• She has never seen before last New Year. - She had never seen her before last New Year's.(before a period in the past)
• I had cut the oranges before mother went to home. — I cut oranges before my mother came home(before another action later)

Past Perfect conveys an action completed up to a certain point in the past or before another event that took place a little later

Future Perfect

Education scheme:

will +have+ verb with ending - ed(or III f. for irregular verbs)

• She "ll have finish ed Statistics next month. — She'll finish the stats by next month
• Will she have finish ed Statistics next month?
• She will not have finish ed Statistics next month

Denotes an action that will be done by a certain point in the future or before the start of some other event in the future.

Group Times Perfect Continuous

As a consolation, it is worth mentioning that this group is rarely used in everyday English.

Present Perfect Continuous

Perfect Continuous Formed as follows:

Have (has) been+ verb ending - ing

• I have been do ing the exercises already for 3 hours. — I have been exercising for 3 hours.
• have I been do ing the exercises already for 3 hours?
• I have not been do ing the exercises already for 3 hours

Present Perfect Continuous is used to refer to an act that began in the past, lasted for some time and continues to continue in the present, while indicating the period during which the act takes place

Past Perfect Continuous

His education scheme is as follows:

had been+ verb ending - ing

• We had been work ing for one hour when they came. — We (already) had been working for an hour when they came.

Denotes an event that lasted a certain period of time in the past and ended before the start of another action that also occurred in the past, expressed in Past Simple tense

Many of those who study English know that it contains two groups of tenses.

Three main ones:

• present;
• past;
• future.

The presented times, depending on the situation, are added to the secondary times:

• simple;
• Progressive;
• perfect;
• Perfect Progressive.

The result of adding these two groups is the presence of 12 tenses in English.

The tenses listed are usually arranged in a table that clearly shows what form the verb takes when it is in a particular period of time.

Also in the table you can see the first indications of how in English.

To better remember complex material, you need to study it playfully, for this, in addition to the scientific table of times, we will show you a comic one, which for some will be easier to learn.

Rules for determining times

Having considered how the verb forms are correctly called, we will answer the question of how to determine the time in English. Let's look at the step-by-step instructions for the answer.

• The first step is to translate the sentence we are working on to make it easier to understand what information is being given to us.
• The second step is to define the time marker. In each time in the language we are considering, there is a marker - a word that easily allows you to determine the time. Similar words indicate a specific point in time or a relative one. For example, in Present Simple, such markers are words such as: every day, often, constantly. These markers, as can be seen from the example, indicate regular time, but not only this feature denotes this type of time. Another marker is the usual action name: i like watermelon. In this case, it does not indicate exactly when you like it, and you just talk about your action, without specifying the time period.

In this example, it can be seen that such markers provide ease of recognition and correct determination of time in a sentence. Based on this simple example, we want to show that each time has its own markers - words by which you can easily understand what time is in front of you. The main thing is to remember the markers.

• The third step is to remember what time the marker belongs to.

• The fourth step is to determine the time.

Having considered how to correctly determine the time in English, let's pay attention to the following point: how to determine the time

Verb tense rules

To solve this problem, as in the previous case, we will use a step-by-step instruction.

• The first step is to underline the verbs we see in the sentence.
• The second step is to remember whether this verb is correct or not, because, according to English reference books, the verb has three properties by which it is easy to determine:

1. Time is one of the main ones: past, future or present.
2. Kind of time - subtime defined by the marker.
3. The voice is passive (an action is performed on the speaker) or active (an action is performed on the speaker).

If the verb is regular, you can refer to the dictionary or lexicon, otherwise, to the table of irregular verbs or again to the verbs of the same type you have learned.

• The third step is to find a compound next to the main verb that refers directly to time.

For example, for the group Past - was, did ...; verb ending in -ed.

For Present: do, does…; verb ending in -s.

Such examples most clearly show that it is easy to determine the tense for any verb, and answer the constantly arising question for those who are just starting to figure out how to determine the tense of a verb in English.

Summarizing

So, summing up, we want to note that we have considered the main and hard-to-perceived questions when learning English, focusing on the first one: how to determine the time in English, since it is the key to correct and quick learning. In addition to answering the main question, we also described how to easily learn and understand each tense, as well as recognize it in a sentence.

Finally, I would like to give advice: give the maximum amount of time and attention to the topic "How to determine the tense of a sentence in English." The main thing here is practice and its regularity. Then you can easily answer the question of how to determine the time in English. Good luck.

Perhaps the worst thing for any person starting to learn English is the times. And this fear is understandable. Indeed, in Russian, it is enough to use 3 tenses to express your thoughts: simple, present and past. And therefore, having learned that there are as many as 12 tenses in English, panic may arise and a number of questions: “That is, how is it 12? Is there something we don't know about time?!” No, you know as much about time as your English-speaking comrades. English sentences also express only the simple, present and future. Where does the well-known 12 times come from? The fact is that in addition to the aforementioned times, in English there are types of these times, which differ in the form of the verb. Let's take a closer look at this issue and study the topic "Temporal forms of the verb in the English language table."

The aspect tense system of the English verb is expressed in 4 ways. Consider a table:

All these forms can be expressed in the past, present and future. Accordingly, it turns out that there can be 12 options to express your idea in terms of time. A sentence in any of the 12 forms can contain the same subject and even minor members. The only thing that changes is the predicate. With the help of English verbs, which play the role of a predicate, one or another aspectual form is formed. So, verbs can change the aspect tense form with the help of an ending or a combination with an auxiliary verb. To understand how the verb changes for a particular tense, let's turn to the table.

Aspective forms of the verb in English table:

The aspectual forms of the English verb in the active voice are always acceptable, which cannot be said about the passive voice. So, the times of the Perfect Continuous group and the Future Continuous can only be used in the forms of the active voice. Predicates in the passive voice for these times are not typical of the English language, because there will be too many verbs that will relate to this predicate in one sentence. And everything that looks complicated, in English, as a rule, is simplified.

Aspective forms of the verb in English: examples of use

After the theory, study a few examples using different tense forms of the verb to reinforce the material:

It is worth noting that among all temporary forms, the times of the Simple group are most common. In speech, you can also meet the times of Present Continuous and Present Perfect. The rest are less common, if the situation forces. The tenses of the Perfect Continuous group are the least used. First, because this group can be used in very rare cases. Secondly, it is very often replaced by the Perfect group.

Dealing with the temporary system of the language, as you can see, is quite easy. The main thing you need to remember is the aspect tense forms of the verb in English according to the tables above, because depending on what form you give the verb, the meaning of your sentence depends. If at first you will have difficulty in distinguishing all these forms, reread this article, study the tables about the types of time system and make different examples with each individual form.

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