Hao Thai:
"Now could you please do the same for past perfect, present
perfect, future perfect, and their associated progressive
cousins?"
Ok, but that'll take some time.
PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE
Yesterday at 9:30 I had been eating for 5 minutes.
|<----------------->|
| I am eating |
| |
|<--->| |
|5 min| |
-+---+-----+-------------+------+-----------|----->
| 9:25 9:30 9:53 | NOW
| |
|<---------------------------->|<--------------...
| Yesterday | Today
Only a 5-minute part of the action os to left of the
reference point (9:30). The other 23-minute part was still
in the future.
I hope I'll be able to draw a similar timeline for Future
Perfect Progressive yourself...
PAST PERFECT
Yesterday at 10:00 I had finished my breakfast
|<--------------->|
| I am eating |
| |
-+---+-----------------+---+----+-----------|----->
| 9:25 9:53 10:00 | NOW
| |
|<---------------------------->|<--------------...
| Yesterday | Today
You see, the whole action is to the left of the reference
point (10:00). In other wods, The action of eating _was in
the past at 10:00.
Try to draw a diagram for Future Perfect yourself.
PRESENT PERFECT PROGRESSIVE
It has been raining since morning
Morning Day Evening Night
|<------->|<------------->|<------->|<----->|
| | | | 21:09 |
--+------+--+---------------+--|------+---+---+--->
(7:41)| NOW |
| |
|<------------------------------>|
Raining
The reference point here is NOW (the moment of speech).
You can say "It raining now", but not "It is raining since
morming" because you refer to a perfect (=complete) part os
an on-going action. The complete part is its past part --
from 7:41 to NOW; and the action is not finished because it
has a future part -- from NOW to 21:09.
| By saying "it is raining" you don't refer to a certain
| part of the action, you just say that the NOW point is
| "inside" the action of raining.
|
| Accordingly, Past Simple places NOW to the right of the
| whole action (to the right of its end), and Future Simple
| locates the whole action (its beginning) to the right of
| NOW.
PRESENT PEFECT
When one wants to express a though about a state, not a
process, they shouln't youse a Progressive tense:
We have been friends since 1992.
The diagram for this sentence is exactly the same as for the
previous example, but the tense is different. So, the only
way to understand it is to grasp the difference between
states and action.
Another state: to be a student:
I have been a student since 2002.
In 2004 I had been a student for 2 years.
In 2008 I will have been a student for 6 years.
ANOTHER FUNCTION OF PRESENT PERFECT
In addition to the above, this tense is also used to refer
to past actions (located to the left of NOW) which have an
actual present result or are somehow important.
For example:
"Will you go to the theater with us?"
"No, I can't. I have taken ill"
The event of taking ill is in te past, though the guy is
still sick (actual result of taking ill). And it is really
important, because it is the reason he can't go to the
theater.
"Why everybody thinks (Present Simple -- a state -- to have
an opinion, as apposed to the process of thinking, which
creates an opinion) that Frankenstein is the monster's
name???"
"Don't know (again a state, to know ot not to know, as
opposedto the process or acquiring knowledge). Most of us
haven't read the book..."
The action of reading the book is important as regards the
knowneldge that the reader receives. The important present
result is that those who have not read the it don't know who
bears the name of Frankenstein.
Did it help?
P.S.: Next time don't quote large posts entirely without an
apparent need.