Overview: uses of tenses and aspects

 

	Present continuous	Present simple
	In the middle of an action I’m watching this comedy.	A present state I like comedies.
A temporary routine I’m workinglate this week.	A permanent routine I work late most days.
	Present perfect	Past simple
	An action in the period up to the present I’ve writtenthe letter.	An action in the past I wrote the letter yesterday.
A series of actions up to the present I’ve played basketball a few times.	A series of past actions I played basketball years ago.
A state up to the present I’ve beenhere for a week.	A past state I was there for a week.
	Past continuous
	An action over a period of past time It was raining at the time.
	Present perfect continuous
	An action over a period up to the present It has been raining all day.
	Past perfect continuous	Past perfect
	An action over a period up to a past time It had been raining for hours.	An action before a past time The rain had stopped by then.
	A state before a past time The weather had been awful.

EXERCISES

VERB FORMS IN THE INDICATIVE MOOD

FORMS OF THE INDEFINITE ASPECT

 

I. Answer the following questions choosing an appropriate phrase from the list. Why is the present indefinite used here? Explain the spelling and pronunciation of the ending in the 3rd person singular.

1. What does an architect do? 2. What does a shoemaker do? 3. What does a mason do? 4. What does an artist do? 5. What does a doctor do? 6. What does a hairdresser do? 7. What does a broker do? 8. What does a law student do? 9. What does a laundress do? 10. What does a sportsman do? 11. What does a farmer do?

(to go in for sports, to study law, to cut and dress the hair, to paint pictures, to mend boots and shoes, to make designs for buildings, to work in stone, to practise medicine, to buy and sell shares, to wash linen, to grow crops and raise cattle and poultry)

Refer the action to the past adding an appropriate time indicator and making other necessary changes. Explain the spelling and pronunciation of the verb endings.

1. They will finish their dessert, pay the waiter for the dinner and leave. 2. These two girls study in the same group. 3. Why don't you go home by tram? 4. In spite of his age this old man travels a great deal. 5. I shall only shake hands with him and return to my seat. 6. These boys often quarrel but they make up their quarrels very soon and are friends again. 7. I feel very angry and it is on the tip of my tongue to say what I think. And I shall say it. 8. In the evening the teacher will correct our exercise-books. 9. The speaker refers to the editorial in the evening paper. 10. The professor will continue his lecture after the break for lunch. 11. We are late for the show, aren't we? So it's no use hurrying. 12. George plays chess very well, doesn't he?

3. Insert "shall", "will" and "ll". Give variants wherever possible and account for your suggestions.

1.... you return my umbrella tomorrow? 2.... I really be twenty years old tomorrow? 3. I... certainly post this letter for you, don't worry. 4. I think we... not return home tonight, we... stay with our friends in the country. 5. James and I... be very glad to see you. Do come. 6. James... be very glad to see you and so... I. 7. I... be very glad to see you and so... James. 8. Ann... stay here and you... help me to lift this box and carry it into the house. 9.... I help you to lift the box? Yes, do please. 10. We... reach home before dark.

Determine the meaning of the verb forms in terms.

1. The sun shines by day and the moon by night. 2. Many thousand years ago the mainland of Europe stretched much farther west than now. 3. When did you last go to the Tretyakov Gallery? 4. A man once set out on a journey on horse­back and soon found himself wet through with the rain. He complained a great deal, declaring that he was certain to belaid up with rheumatism. Suddenly he was attacked by highwaymen. But owing to the fact that the powder was wet, their guns were useless. Thus the rain saved the traveller's life. 5. Jane will be very much obliged to you, if you let her know the date of the concert. 6. When will the next solar eclipse take place? 7. When do you start for Kiev? 8. (From-a play) Ellen: Mary, put the tea in the teapot, will you? Mary: Yes, certainly. (Mary goes to the cupboard and puts the tea in the teapot. As she does so, the bell outside begins ringing madly.) 9. When she graduates from the institute, she will be a teacher of English, an interpreter or a translator. 10. What time do you leave your office?

5. This is a description of daily actions given by a teacher of English, Mr. Priestley, and his wife Mrs. Priestley (from "Essential English" by E. Eckersley, Part II). Read the text and retell it in the 3rd person. Retell the text in the past tense making all the necessary changes.

Mr. Priestley. Now I'll begin. I wake at about seven o'clock and then it is time for me to get up. I like a cold bath every morning, so I put on my dressing-gown and slippers and go to the bath-room. The water feels very cold on winter mornings, but I rub myself hard with the towel and soon I feel quite warm.

Then I shave, brush my teeth and wash my face and go back to the bedroom to dress. I brush and comb my hair, take a clean handkerchief out of the drawer and go downstairs for breakfast at a quarter past eight. After breakfast I sit and read my morning paper and smoke a cigarette, or in the summer I have a walk round my garden. I go into my study at nine o'clock and meet my students there, and the day's work begins. At twelve-thirty I have a break for lunch. I gen­erally finish my work by about five o'clock. Then I have a cup of tea and a biscuit, and in summer I spend an hour or so in the garden and play a few games of tennis, or I go to the golf club and have a round of golf.

We have dinner about seven-thirty or eight o'clock, and then sit and talk, listen to the wireless or look at television, or Mrs. Priestley plays the piano. Sometimes, in the summer, we take out the car and go for a drive in the country; in the winter we go to the cinema or to the theatre.

Now, here is Mrs. Priestley to describe a woman's day.

Mrs. Priestley. I too get up soon after seven and go down­stairs to help Susan with the work. She cleans out the stove and fills it up with coke, so that we get plenty of hot water all day. Then she takes out the ashes from the sitting-room fire and re-lays it with papers and sticks and coal. Then it is all ready to light, and only needs a match put to it.

While she is doing that, I get the breakfast ready. I put the table-cloth on the dining-room table and put out the knives, forks and spoons, and the cups, saucers and plates. Then I go and cook the breakfast. I soon have the bacon and the eggs cooking in the frying-pan. I make toast, boil the kettle for tea or coffee, and we are ready to sit down at a quarter past eight.

After breakfast, Susan and I clear away the dishes. Then she washes and dries them, and I go to do my shopping. Sometimes I go to the shops — to the butcher's to order the meat, to the grocer's to buy tea, coffee, sugar, etc., but often I ring them up and order what I want by 'phone.

Then Susan and I go upstairs to make the beds, dust upstairs and downstairs, and do the carpets with my electric cleaner. It is about eleven o'clock by this time, so I change my clothes and begin to get ready for lunch. After lunch I do some sewing or go for a walk and visit my friends.

Then Mr. Priestley joins me for afternoon tea in the sit­ting-room — usually bringing one or two of his students with him. We have bread and butter, jam or honey, cakes and biscuits.

My husband has already told you how we spend our evenings — in summer, tennis, golf or a drive in the car; in winter, music, the cinema, a concert; sometimes dinner in town and a theatre afterwards. Sometimes, in fact, very often, we just have a quiet evening at home. You see, John is at the University and Margaret is now at a boarding-school and comes home only at the weekends; so, except when they are on holiday, there are only the two of us at home. And when the wind is blowing through the trees outside and the rain is beating on the windows, our warm fire seems warmer and more cheerful than ever — and I often think that these "quiet" evenings are the best evenings of all.