Search results for 'tag:Present continuous tag:Direct objects' matching tags 'Present continuous' and 'Direct objects'

Re: The Continuous tense

Tanit — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:41:53 GMT

"Have you ever had the feeling that you're being followed?"

Hi again

Anonymous
Ah ok, so is that entire sentence classed as Present Perfect Continuous, or are the clauses treated separately?

Look at the main clause only: "Have you ever had (+ direct object)" is present perfect, and so the whole sentence is in the present perfect, too.
It could have been one of the following:
    Have you ever had a dog?
    Have you ever had a dog that barks all day?
    Have you ever had a dog that is always barking?
    Have you ever had a dog that used to follow you wherever you go?
and it would always be in the present perfect, irrespective of what follows "have ...had" (I've tried to put various verb tenses after "that" ... I hope my examples are correct, but I cannot guarantee it!)

Anonymous
My understanding is that for it to be 'perfect' the word 'have' (or a form of have) needs to be in there

Yes, it's present perfect if you have
have or has + past participle if it's active (have/has gone, have/has told, have/has written etc)
have or has + been + past participle if it's passive (have/has been told, have/has been written etc)

Anonymous
don't understand the 'passive' thing so I suppose I'm a bit unclear still

my comment about the passive referred to "are being followed":
you are following > present continuous, active
you are being followed > present continuous, passive

Does this help?

Re: with his eyes closed/shining

Philip — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 14:44:04 GMT

Angliholic wrote:
Philip wrote:
Angliholic wrote:

1. He enjoys listening to music, with his eyes closed.
2. He came out of the room, with his eyes shining.

The above two samples share a similar pattern, but one uses "past participle" and the other "present participle" at the end of the sentence. I find it difficult to explain this away to my pupils. Do you have a clear-cut way to explain it? Thanks.

How about "state of being" vs. "action".

The audience stood immediately after the performance, thrilled and applauding.

My horse arrived at the house after a good run, tired and sweating.

I hope this helps.

Thanks, Philip.

It helps me a lot, but I'm afraid that my pupils don't understand.

Maybe the following will help if they all sound right:

1. He closes his eyes. "closes" indicates a simple action

2. His eyes are closed. "closed" is the past participle used as an adjective to describe the 'state' of the eyes.

3. His eyes are shining. This is the present continuous tenses, indicating an on-going action.

I need your confirmation about sentence 2. Does "His eyes close" sound right? Yes. In #1 the verb is used transitively (with a direct object). In this sentence, the verb is used intransitively (no direct object): "His eyes close slowly as he drifts away to sleep".

Be sure to post for more help if necessary.

Re: eating oranges

Philip — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 16:31:20 GMT

User_gary wrote:
Philip wrote:
User_gary wrote:

I am eating oranges everyday in the morning.

Here `eating' is adjective (i.e. past participle) or noun (i.e. Gerund)?

What you have is the present continuous tense.....and it really should be "I eat oranges every day....."

OK, Thank you.

Let consider this,

I like eating oranges.

I think here eating is present participle. But can we say it is an `adjetive'

Here it is the gerund form of the verb, used as a noun. "Eating oranges" is a noun phrase serving as the direct object of the verb 'like'.

Re: to be parsed

MrPedantic — Sat, 03 Sep 2005 10:27:54 GMT

Hello K.O.

That looks good - here's a little more detail:

Clause 1

We - subject

were spared - passive voice, past tense

the storm's fury - noun phrase, object (the storm's - possessive; fury - direct object)

Clause 2

but - coordinating conjunction

now - adverb

are having - modal verb, present continuous

to deal with - phrasal verb (prepositional), to-infinitive

the refugees and the misery - two objects coordinated by 'and'

(I expect there are other ways of parsing it.)

The present continuous emphasises the fact that the action is taking place as the speaker utters the sentence.

MrP