Search results for 'tag:Predicates tag:Simple past' matching tags 'Predicates' and 'Simple past'

Re: Pronoun Case. Please Help.

Avangi — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:58:32 GMT

Eddie88
1)    This was an example on an internet site: 'That must be him on the phone'

The site suggested that it should read, 'that must be he on the phone'    Correct. But I'm the only person I know personally who says it that way.

Their justification was this: the nominative form of the pronoun following the verb be  Right !   I am I, Don Quixote! The first "I" is the subject of the sentence, the second is the predicate nominative, following the "to be" verb.

Now, I understand this; however, could the justification be equally sound if I were to say that it is the nominative (subjective) case because the pronoun is the subject of the sentence, so it should be HE? Absolutely true! But that principle does not apply in any way to your first example. It must be a different sentence. He is he, Don Quixote. (Sorry, that's a little too cute. let's say, "He is on the phone.")
Perhaps you mean to say that "He" is the subject of the real sentence, or he is the person performing the action in the real meaning of the sentence. I've heard these things discussed, but they have nothing to do with the syntax of the sentence. That is, they're contextual, not syntactical, or something like that.

However, this raises another problem for me. When there is a preposition, the pronoun is meant to be in the objective case. Is this only true when the preposition PRECEEDS the pronoun? Because in this case, ON follows the pronoun, so I wasn't sure if the rule applied.   Right again! The pronoun and it's object must make up a prepositional phrase. She brought the water to us.  The ground was shaking under him. She was walking beside me.    "She" (nominative) is subject of the sentence. "Me" (objective) is object of the preposition. He is on the phone. The object of the preposition "on" is "phone," certainly not "he."
Edit. Oh yes, sorry I forgot Winston Churchill's famous exception, This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put.

2)    Could you please tell me the rules for the usage of were and was? For example, in line 4 of this writing piece is it 'if I were to say...' or 'if I was to say... ' WHY?
"Were" (first person singular) is the correct use of the subjunctive mood in certain "if" sentences, but few people (like me) use it anymore. Simple past ("was") is considered acceptable. Do a search for "subjunctive" on this site or elsewhere.

3)    Finally, in academic prose one is not to use the word that too often, if at all. Once again in line 4, the word that is used here. It sounds correct to use that rather than which. Should I use which to be more formal, even though it sounds weird? Sorry, I'm not finding your example.

Sorry, I took "in line 4 of this writing piece" as a colloquialism, "in line 4 of a certain writing piece." I thought it was weird.

Re: FORM

AlpheccaStars — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 14:36:50 GMT

1) Where are you? I've been waiting for 2 hours

2) I needn't have brought that milk

I = subject

need have bought = verb; present perfect tense, modal form (need is the auxiliary), buy is the main verb, bought is the past participle.

not - adverb

that - demonstrative pronoun refering to milk

milk - noun,object of the verb buy

3) He played truant

He - subject

play - verb, simple past tense

truant - predicate noun ? (To be precise, I would have to look in a dictionary to see if "play" is transitive or intransitive in this case.

4) I stopped to give my friend a lift

I = subject
stopped - verb, simple past

to give my friend a lift - infinitive phrase, adverb, modifying "stop"., "to give" is the infinitive head of the phrase

my friend - my is personal pronoun modifying freind, friend, noun, indirect object of the verbal, give

a lift - a = article, modifyinglift. Lift is noun, direct object of the verbal, give

5) I stopped giving my friend a lift
I = subject
stopped - verb, simple past
giving my friend a lift - gerund phrase, direct object of verb "stop". giving is the gerund head of the phrase

The other teachers can critique this analysis.

Re: which one is correct? vexed............

Mister Micawber — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 14:22:52 GMT

Here, they are all good sentences and lead essentially to the same result:

1. The shop closed down. (finished past action-- closed is the simple past tense of the verb close)

2. The shop is closed down. (present condition-- closed is the past participle used as a predicate adjective)

3. The shop has closed down. (recent past action related to the present situation-- present perfect of the verb close)

Re: I wish

CalifJim — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 08:44:28 GMT

What is the yardstick?

It seems that I wish ... simple past ... doesn't work with "achievement" verbs -- or rather "achievement" predicates -- predicates which indicate by their meaning something which happens at a point in time.

Thus, the following are not possible.

I wish he stopped singing.
I wish he died.
I wish he arrived earlier.
I wish he won the race.

Use would or had for non-past and past, respectively.

I wish he [would stop / had stopped] singing.
I wish he [would die / had died].
I wish he [would arrive / had arrived] earlier.
I wish he [would win / had won] the race.

And yet even some of these are unidiomatic to some degree. For example, I prefer I hope he [wins / will win] the race to I wish he would win the race.

CJ

Re: Analysis of a sentence

Doll — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 11:09:36 GMT

Walking as if each step were painful¹, she slowly pushed open the glass door and hobbled down the nearest aisle².

1: Dependant clause (what kind of dependant clause??) I'm kind of confused as to the nature of this subordinate clause... It is reduced clause(While/As she was walking...)

2: Main clause Yes.

Walking: past progressive? (which tense is?) With a big probability it is past progressive.

As if: describes how a situation seems to be Yes.

Each: determiner Yes.

Step: noun Yes.

Were: linking verb (copula) Yes.

Painful: predicator adjective (predicate adjective) I am not sure.

She: personal pronoun, 3^rd person

Slowly: adverb

Pushed: V. Simple past, transitive

(pushed open): Verbal phraseâ

The: (adjective, determinant, definite article) Yes.

Glass door: compound noun or:

Glass: adjective noun (is there a term for nouns used as adjectives?)

Door: noun Glass door --compound noun.Most compound nouns are formed by nouns modified by other nouns or adjectives.Here is some information for you:We can use a noun as an adjective when it precedes a noun that it modifies; a mountain bike is a bike designed for riding up mountains. 'Mountain' functions as an adjective modifying the noun bike.

And: conjunction, links main clause with verbal phrase (compound verb: pushed + hobbled). Not too sure as to how to define the use of the conjunction here. I would assume "and" here links the main clause with the verbal phrase hobbled down the nearest aisle. It is coordinating conjunction.I think here and links independent clauses.

Hobbled down: verbal phrase

The: definite article

Nearest: adj.

Aisle: noun Yes.

Re: Analysis of a sentence

SeekerOfPeace — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:41:02 GMT

Thanks Philip.

How about the next one:

Walking as if each step were painful¹, she slowly pushed open the glass door and hobbled down the nearest aisle².

1: Dependant clause (what kind of dependant clause??) I'm kind of confused as to the nature of this subordinate clause...

2: Main clause

Walking: past progressive? (which tense is?)

As if: describes how a situation seems to be

Each: determiner

Step: noun

Were: linking verb (copula)

Painful: predicator adjective (predicate adjective)

She: personal pronoun, 3^rd person

Slowly: adverb

Pushed: V. Simple past, transitive

(pushed open): Verbal phraseâ

The: (adjective, determinant, definite article)

Glass door: compound noun or:

Glass: adjective noun (is there a term for nouns used as adjectives?)

Door: noun

Hobbled down: verbal phrase

The: definite article

Nearest: adj.

Aisle: noun

Re: can you tell me my mistake please?

Crux_online — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 15:45:36 GMT

There are many mistakes here, mostly of usage. I will address the major problems here.

First sentence: a teen have benn victim of a short missed ,then he tried to kill his agressor,he had a feud with the two boys.

Let's correct the spelling first:

A teen have been victim of a shot missed, then he tried to kill his aggressor, he had a feud with the two boys.

Here, have been does not agrees with the subject. In order to agree with the 3rd person singular noun teen, have been must become has been.

A teen has been victim of a shot missed, then he tried to kill his aggressor, he had a feud with the two boys.

Now let's look at the tone of the sentence. When you use a construction like has been, you are usually talking about some past event--you really are not concerned with the event itself, just that it has happened. Here, however, you are describing a specific event. You will want to point to that past event with a verb in the simple past (we'll add the proper article, a, for good measure:

A teen was a victim of a shot missed, then he tried to kill his aggressor, he had a feud with the two boys.

Now you have a complete sentence up to the underlined portion. The underlined portion should be a separate sentence because it is a separat thought and includes its own subject and predicate:

A teen was a victim of a shot [that] missed, then he tried to kill his aggressor, He had a feud with the two boys.

These sentences are now complete and correct.

Here is the rest with the errors underlined:

For the principal who try to make her life bettter , the solution isn't it police but more discussion, help and hope.she says that apathy and rage are the enemies of children not knives an guns

And corrected for spelling, verb tense and agreement, and usage:

For the principal who (tries / is trying) to make her life better, the solution isn't [more] police, but more discussion, help, and hope. She says that apathy and rage are the enemies of children, not knives and guns.

To may want to look at your other compositions in the same way. Don't look at the work as a whole, but separate the parts of the task of correction and perform each task separately (correct the spelling, then correct verb tense, etc.)

C

Re: Present perfect / Past perfect

miriam — Sat, 24 Jul 2004 04:18:37 GMT

Hello, Jack and Johnno

"I have never seen him drive the car before."

Johnoo said the tense used in this sentence is the present perfect of "see" (have seen), which is true. That is the main verb of the sentence. Now, "drive" has a different subject (him); as Johnno said, it is an infinitive (a bare infinitive) so it does not show tense or aspect. The use of an infinitive in this case is not necessarily related to the tense of the main verb. In the following sentences, you would/could still use "drive":
"I saw him drive his car last night."
"I'll see him drive his car tonight."
"I should see him drive his car later."
"I made him drive his car into the garage."
"I won't ever let him drive my car."

Again, "drive" is the base form of the verb and has "infinitive" meaning, if that makes sense.
In your sentence, there is another form of "drive" that would make sense: "driving". This would make your sentence a bit more specific: your focus would be on the action itself, he was already driving his car by when you saw him.

"I have never seen him drove the car before."

Yes, this sentence is incorrect for the reasons posted above. Also, the subject "him" is an objective pronoun, it will not take a conjugated verb as predicate.

You could use "drove" in a sentence with similar meaning, but the form would be different:
"I saw (that) he drove this car into the garage."

1. I was busy reading what you have said. 2. I was busy reading what you had said. 3. I was busy reading what you have had said. 4. I was busy reading what you had had said.
Before dealing with the correctness or incorrectness of each complete sentence, there is something to be said about the verb tenses you used. In sentence #1 you used the present perfect, and in #2 the past perfect. Both tenses exist in English; what we'll see in a minute is if these tenses have been used correctly.
But in sentences #3 and #4 you have used verb combinations that don't exist in English. "Have had said" is not posible, nor is "had had said". So both sentences are incorrect.

Also, I guess we all agree that you used "say" here instead of "write" or "type", as many of us do when it comes to emails, online chat or message boards.

As to the sentences themselves, #3 and #4 are incorrect because the "tenses" used in them are not really possible or meaningful verb combinations in English.
In sentence #1, the present perfect is not the best choice. Think of it this way: you cannot possibly read something before it has been written. The action of writing is prior to your reading, so if you used a verb in the past for the second action (read), you indeed need a verb in the past too for the first (say).
I'd use the simple past in that sentence:
"I was busy reading what you said."

Sentence #2 is correct (I still prefer the simple past there, but there may be contexts in which the past tense will be a better choice). The meaning of your sentence is "Someone had written/wrote something before you got busy reading it."

Miriam