In Past perfect^x, Auxiliaries^x, Constructions^x

Mister Micawber wrote: Future Simple (I will sit) Future Continuous/Progressive (I will be sitting) Future Perfect (I will have sat") Present Simple (I sit) Past Simple (I sat) Past Continuous/Progressive (I was sitting) Past Perfect (I had sat) Past Perfect Continuous/Progressive (I had been...

In #1, the verb is in the passive voice, the past perfect tense. In the active voice, it would be The gas explosion had blown out all the shop's windows. Blown out is a phrasal verb; had been blown out is a verb with auxiliaries. In #2, had is the (whole) verb and blown out is a past participle...

OK - I've got the answer. Sorry it took so long, but I had to do the research, so I bought a copy of "The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar", (No disputing the authority of that, I hope?), and looked up "plupluperfect". So here's what it said: plulpluperfect - A verb phrase that...

Very true, Aeolus29. There are only two tense inflections in English - the "s" for the present (only for third person singular), and the "ed" for the past. In this sense there are only two tenses. All the other verbal machinery of English depends on combining auxiliaries and/or modals with the...