Re: botton or buckle my belt? and the s in verbs

Yankee — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 16:23:29 GMT

Anonymous wrote:
Hi, everybody I have few questions.

-If I have a belt for pants do I say : "I botton my belt" or I buckle my belt?
Belts usually have buckles rather than buttons, so you would normally buckle your belt.

-Look at these sentences: Do you know how much ~~a ticket concert~~ the concert ticket cost?
In the sentence above, the verb cost is simple past tense. The sentence asks whether you know how much someone paid for the ticket.

Do You Know How Much It Costs?
This sentence asks what the price is.

Why in the 1st sentence the verb "cost "didn't take the s and in the 2nd sentence it did? What are ALL the cases in which a verb takes the s?, What are all the cases in which a verb doesn't take the s? There is an s at the end of simple present tense verbs in the third person singular in affirmative sentences. If the sentence is negative or interrogative, you use does+the base form of the verb in the simple present tense (third person singular).

Thanks a lot for your time and consideration, take care.

Re: Perfect tense (Guest:Manikandan)

Woodward — Thu, 31 Jul 2003 14:13:19 GMT

Hi Manikandan,

The Perfect Tense is a very large topic, though I'll try to explain some of the basic rules to you about the Present Perfect. (I did the Past Perfect in a recent post)

The Perfect tense consists of HAVE + PAST PARTICIPLE
and it is used in the following cases:

1. An action that happened at an unspecified time. (we don't say when the action happened)
- I HAVE BEEN to Italy.
(I don't say exactly when I went. Perhaps it was last month or 5 years ago.)
If we specify the time, we use the present tense
- I WENT to Italy LAST WEEK.

2. An action that has recently happened:
- The baby HAS just GONE to sleep.
(Note that we have JUST in there which means recently, a short time ago)

3. An action that started in the past and continues up to the present. It is often used with "for" or "since" in these cases.
- SHE HAS LIVED in Malta all her life.
- THEY HAVE KNOWN each other SINCE 2001.
- HE HAS BEEN the President FOR 2 years now.

4. An action that happened repeatedly before now:
- I have won many competitions.
- He HAS FAILED his exam three times (because he didn't study or know about this Forum)

This is only the Perfect Tense in affirmative sentences.....I haven't even started with questions and the other tenses....that is for another time.

I hope this helped a little.

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Re: botton or buckle my belt? and the s in verbs

Re: Perfect tense (Guest:Manikandan)