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Charles Dube Highway to success, Tenses continued
THIS is a sequel of what was done last week. This is necessitated by the fact that students have challenges on the use of tenses. For example, they show a lot of weaknesses on summary work.
They lose a lot of marks on the mechanical accuracy part of the summary. This also applies on compositions where they drop a lot of marks on tenses. To improve on tenses, they should have practice on tenses. They should make sentences rather than learn tenses as single words. However, in this article we will start with definitions and give examples. Students should use a lot of sentences than single words.
These will help eliminate all glaring weaknesses in the written exercises. You need to bear with some kind of repeats so as to clearly understand these tenses. For example, a tense is a form of the verb that allows you to express time.
The tense of the verb tells us when an event or something existed or when a person did something.
Past, present and future are the three main tenses. These are the three main types of tenses in English. The past tense is used to describe an activity or an event that has happened in the past state of being and needs to include a time marker for when an event or an action took place. Its structural formula reads as follows: Subject +verb (2nd form) + object. Examples: We met yesterday. He bought a new shirt last week.
Future tense – The future tense is a verb tense used to describe an event or action that has not yet happened and is expected to happen in the future. Structural formula – Subject + shall/will +verb/s/es/ +object. Examples: He will/ be here soon.
What are the subtypes of tenses? Past continuous tense – The past continuous tense is used to describe events or actions that have already occurred in the past. It is employed to describe an action which describes an action which happened in the past.
Structural formula goes thus: Subject + helping verb (was/were) + verb(ing) + object. Examples: I was watching TV. We were sleeping. She was eating her lunch.
Past perfect tense. The past perfect tense is used to describe an event that occurred before a competed action in the past. Structural formula: Subject + had + verb(ed) + object. Examples of sentences: He had gone when she became ill. She had not lived in Gweru before. They had not been married long when she was born.
Past perfect continuous tense –The past perfect continuous tense represents an action or event that started in the past and sometimes continued into another action or another time. Structural formula: Subject + had been + verb(ing) + object (optional) + time of action.
Examples of sentences: We had been playing games for two hours when Dad came home. She had been reading magazines for one month before she decided to apply for a job. Had she been washing dishes all day.
Present continuous tense –The present continuous tense is used to talk about the ongoing actions, events or conditions that are still not finished. Structural formula –Subject + helping verb (is, am/are) + main verb (ing) + object. Examples of sentences: She is playing basketball. Birds are flying in the sky. I am learning English.
Structural formula- Subject + helping verb (have/has) + verb (ed) + object. Examples of sentences. She has not finished her work yet. I have seen that movie twice. We have visited Bulawayo several times.
Present perfect continuous –The present perfect continuous tense shows a situation that has started in the past and continues in the present. Structural formula reads: Subject + helping verb (have/has) + been + verb +object (optional) + since/for + time duration + object. Sentence examples: I have been learning English for many years. He has been working ever since 2010. We have been saving money.
Future continuous. The future continuous tense is used to describe an ongoing action that will occur or occur in the future. Structural formula: Subject + shall/will be + verb/ing) + object. Examples of sentences: He will be coming to visit us next week. She will be watching television. He will be writing a letter to Grace.
Future perfect tense: The future perfect tense is used to describe an action that will be completed between now and a certain point in the future. Structural formula: Subject + shall/will +have + verb (third form) = object. Examples of sentences: They will have finished the movie before we get home. She will have cleaned the house by 9pm.
Future perfect continuous: We use the future perfect continuous to focus on the duration of an action before a specific time in the future. Structural formula: Subject + shall/will + have +verb (ing) + object (optional) +time (time (instant).
Examples: We will have been studying hard for two weeks before the examinations. By the time the alarm goes off, we will be sleeping for 8 hours.
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