Verb Forms

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Verb Forms
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Basic Structure of the Main Clause

• Subject/ Verb
• Maria sang.
• Subject / Verb/ Object
• She sang a song.
• Subject/ Verb/ Complement
• Her voice was lovely.
• Her voice a lovely thing.

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Variations

• Dummy subject/linking verb/real subject.
• There was a pretty bird sitting in the tree.
• There were pretty birds sitting in the tree.
• There was a flock of pretty birds in the tree.
• It is raining.
• The bird is a cardinal. It sits there every
  morning and sings.
• This is a bird. These are trees.

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Part of Sentences

• Nouns
• Verbs
• Pronouns
• Adjectives
• Adverbs
• Prepositions
• Conjunctions

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Verb Forms Present Tense

• Present tensecalled the plain form or the
  dictionary form in some texts
• Used for present action, habitual or repeated
  action, a fact used sometimes for dramatic
  effect in a story.
• Maria sings in church every Sunday.
• Marias voice is lovely.
• The congregation is hushed and attentive as Maria
  sings.

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Present Tense (continued)

• For third person singular and plural (he, she,
  it, and they), remember that OFTEN--
• if there is no s on the subject, there should
  be an s or es on the verb.
• The girl sings beautifully.
• The girls sing beautifully.
• The gardener waters the flowers every week.
• The workers water the flowers every week.

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Tenses Present Progressive

• Present progressive, the --ing form
• Used when something is happening right now or
  when other events are occurring at the same time.
  
• I am sitting at my computer right now. The sun is
  shining, and the sky is blue.
• Maria is singing right now, and the congregation
  is listening intently.

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Past Tense

• Often it has a d or ed on the end. It is also
  used as the past participle with helping verbs.
• He watered the flowers yesterday.
• They watered the flowers when he was out of town.
  
• Maria used to sing in church every Sunday.
• She was supposed to sing last Sunday, but she got
  sick. (N.B., to sing is not a verb, but a
  verbal, and it does not have tense.)

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Past Participles

• Used with a helping verb to form past perfect,
  present perfect, and so on.
• He has been watering the flowers on Sundays all
  summer. (Present perfectStarted in the past and
  is still going on)
• He had been watering the flowers on Sundays for
  many years, but he changed the schedule last
  week. (Past perfectpast, finished and done)

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Various Tenses

• Some tenses are used primarily when the sentence
  has a time marker or when there is a contrast
  with another point in time.
• I was walking in my neighborhood when I saw a dog
  running loose.
• I have been walking in this neighborhood for
  years, but until this morning, I had never seen a
  dog on the street unaccompanied by its owner.
• I will be looking for that dog this afternoon
  after I get off work.