PRESENT SIMPLE We use the present simple to talk about habitual/repeated actions, permanent situations in the present or planned future actions (in timetables). PRESENT CONTINUOUS We use the present continuous to talk about actions happening now or around the present time and definite arrangements in the near future. Only verbs of action can be used in the continuous form. Some verbs such as believe, know, love are states, not actions. State verbs can normally only be used in the simple form. State verbs: want, like, love, hate, prefer, know, realise, understand, believe, remember, seem, suppose, mean… Some verbs can be actions or state verbs, with a change in meaning. PAST SIMPLE We use the past simple to talk about something that started and finished in the past, with actions that happened at a specific time in the past (this is often marked with time expressions such as yesterday, last week, 1 hour ago…). We also use it to talk about a past state of being, e.g. how we felt, what we thought. ❖ AFFIRMATIVE: person+verb+-ed (or irregular form) ❖ NEGATIVE: person+did not (didn’t)/was not/were not+verb (infinitive) ❖ QUESTION: Wh-question word + did/was/were+person+verb (infinitive) Spelling of Past Tense of Regular Verbs - For most verbs: Add -ed. - For verbs that end in an e: Add -d only. - For verbs that end in a consonant+y: Change y to i and add -ed. - For verbs that end in a vowel+y: Add -ed. - For one-syllable verbs that end in a consonant+vowel+consonant: Double the final consonant and add -ed. - For verbs that end in w or x: Do not double the consonant. Just add -ed. - For two-syllable verbs that end in a consonant+vowel+consonant: If the first syllable is stressed, add -ed. Do not double the consonant. - For two-syllable verbs that end in a consonant+vowel+consonant: If the second syllable is stressed, double the final consonant and add -ed. The simple past tense of Irregular Verbs Irregular verbs do not have the -ed ending in the past tense. Here are some common irregular verbs and their simple past forms. be / was, were - go / went - meet / met - buy / bought - have / had - pay / paid - come / came- leave / left - put / put - do / did - make / made - see / saw - get / got - sell / sold - take / took- give / gave - speak / spoke - write / wrote Work prepositions 1. Work as: to be employed in a certain job or occupation. 2. Work on: to focus one’s effort or attention on a task or project in order to improve or complete it. 3. Work with: to work together with someone to get something done. 4. Work in: to do a job in a particular place or industry. 5. Work at: to work at a particular location or company. 6. Work for: to be an employee of a company or organization. PRESENT PERFECT (I have done) The present perfect simple is subject+have/has+past participle. The past participle often ends in -ed, but many verbs are irregular. - When we say “something has happened”, this is usually new information. - When we use the present perfect, there is a connection with now. The action in the past has a result now. - Gone (to) and Been (to): gone: he is there now or on his way there. Been: he has now come back. - Just= a short time ago - Already = sooner than expected - Yet = until now. We use yet to show that we are expecting something to happen. We use yet in questions and negative sentences. When we talk about a period of time that continues from the past until now, we use the present perfect (recently, in the last few days, so far, since I arrived…). In the same way we use the present perfect with today, this evening, this year, etc. when these periods are not finished at the time of speaking. We also say “It’s the (first) time something has happened”. - It’s the first time he has driven a car. - He hasn’t driven a car before. - He has never driven a car before. PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS (I have been doing) Subject+have/has been+-ing is the present perfect continuous. We use the present perfect continuous for an activity that has recently stopped or just stopped. We use it especially with how long, for and since. The activity is still happening or has just stopped. You use the present perfect continuous for repeated actions. - Present perfect continuous: we are thinking of the activity. It does not matter whether it has been finished or not. We use the continuous to say how long (for something that is still happening). - Present perfect simple: here, the important thing is that something has been finished. We are thinking about the result of the activity, not the activity itself. We use the simple to say how much, how many or how many times (for completed actions). We use the simple with always. We say “I haven’t (done something) since/for…” Some verbs like know, have and like are not normally used in continuous forms. When +past simple - How long +present perfect. The present perfect is a present tense. It tells us about the situation now. The past simple tells us only about the past. We use the present perfect to give new information. But if we continue to talk about it, we normally use the past simple. We do not use the present perfect (I have done) when we talk about a finished time (for example, yesterday/last year/ten minutes ago etc.). We use a past tense. We use the present perfect for a period of time that continues until now. Today/this week/since 2010. We use the past simple for a finished time in the past. Yesterday/last week/from 2010 to 2014. FUTURE TENSES PREPOSITIONS OF TIME AT: to express a precise time. - at 5 o’clock - at 11:30 pm - at lunchtime - at the moment - at midnight - at sunrise - at sunset ON: before days and dates. - on Friday - on Mondays - on 4 July - on 17 March 1966 - on Children’s Day - on his birthday - on Mother’s Day IN: before months, years, centuries and long period of time. - in November - in winter - in 2001 - in the 20th century - in Stone Age PREPOSITIONS OF PLACE AND MOVEMENTS IN: with enclosed spaces (rooms, buildings) and limited areas (towns, parks, countries, continents). ON: with surfaces (walls, floors, shelves) and lines (paths, coasts, the equator) AT: with a point (at the bus stop), and with a building, when we mean either inside or outside. - above: sopra - under: sotto - next to/beside: accanto - opposite: di fronte - between: tra - behind: dietro - in front of: davanti INTO, ONTO and TO are used to talk about movement. The opposite are OUT OF, OFF and FROM. - across: attraverso - along: lungo - up/down: salire/scendere - past: superato - through: attraverso COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE Adjectives are used to describe nouns. If two nouns are being compared to one another, we use comparative adjectives. When comparing three or more nouns, we use superlative adjectives. Good / better / best Bad / worse / worst Little / less / least Much / more / most Far / farther / farthest CONDITIONAL SENTENCES When we want to describe a situation that depends on something else, we can use a conditional. A conditional has two parts - an if-clause and a main clause. We talk about the situation or action in the if-clause and the result in the main clause. The if-clause can come before the main clause or after it. When we put the if-clause before the main clause, we use a comma to separate the clauses. Zero conditional We use it to talk about: - general truths - scientific facts - imperatives We can also use when instead of if, particularly when we talk about things that are generally true or habitually happen. First conditional We use the first conditional to talk about things which may happen now or in the future. - We use can/may in the main clause instead of will for permission. We use may/might/could for possibility. We use can/could for ability. We can use the present perfect or present continuous in the if-clause. We can use should in the if-clause if we are less sure about a possibility. When we use should, we can omit if and begin the clause with should. We can use would in the if-clause to make a request. We use present simple tense in the if-clause when talking about the future. Second conditional We use the second conditional to talk about something which is not true or not real now or in the future (imaginary situations). - We can use the past continuous tense in the if-clause. We can use would+be+-ing for what could have happened. We always use were in the if-clause in formal writing and speech. Third conditional We use the third conditional to talk about something which did not happen in the past. It is often used to express regret. - We can use the past perfect continuous in the if-clause. We can use might/could+have+past participle in the main clause. We can omit if and put had at the beginning of the clause. This is a formal structure and is more common in writing. We use WISH to talk about: - regret for a past situation. - imaginary situations in the present. - something that you want to happen in the future but you think it may not happen
