Search results for 'tag:Present perfect tag:Present continuous' matching tags 'Present perfect' and 'Present continuous'

Re: Active to passive voice

Mister Micawber — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:33:08 GMT

Animals are loved by everybody.
The trees are blown down by the strong wind
Are the plants watered every day by the gardener?
Is her husband always helped by her?
Are all their books brought by boys?

PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE

The dinner is being cooked by Meera
The town is being defended bravely by the soldiers.

Please correct the rest of these yourself:

They are writing letters to their parents
X The letters are written to their parents

Are the children eating sweets now?
X Are sweets are eaten by children?

Is she telling the truth?
X Is it truth that she told?

Are they appointing him Principal of this school?
X Are the school appointed him as principal?

PRESENT PERFECT TENSE

The crops have been ruined by the rain
His old car has been sold by him

Please correct the rest of these yourself:

She has brought a new car
X A new car was brought by her

Has she lost her book
X Was his book has been lost?

Have all the pupils finished the exercises
X Have the exercises has been finished by all the pupils?

PAST TENSE

All the pupils were punished by the teacher
These gloves were knitted by Meera
The room was swept by the servant

Were these flowers planted by you?

You are making some simple typing mistakes. Please correct the rest of these yourself:

Did you forget her name
X Does the name forgotten by you?

Did many people believe her story?
X Does her story beleived by many people

PAST CONTINIOUS tenSE

The wind was blowing the clouds away
X The clouds were being blowed by the winds away

Our soldiers were repairing the bridge
X The bridge were being repaired by the soldiers

Were the children making a noise?
X Were the noise being maked by the children?

WEre they having their breakfast?
X Were their breakfast being had?

PAST PERFECT TENSE

X Had the farmer sown the seeds
X? The seeds had been sown bu the farmer

X Had the postman delivered the letters
X? The letters had been delivered by the postman

FUTURE TENSE

Shall we spend the whole money?
X Will the whole money spend by us ?

X people will forget it after sometime
X Will people forget it after sometime

X All next week the workmen will be paiting our new house
X Our new house will be painting by the workmen all next week

Will the fire destroy this house
X will the house be destroyed by the fire?

Will she tell us the truth ?
X Will the truth told by her ?

Re: Tenses and Sentences

alda1119 — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:02:45 GMT

1. John is working hard --> Present Continuous (be+ing)
2. Isabel had finished her lunch when I arrived --> Past Perfect (had+pp)
3. Niges lives in London --> Present Simple (this is correct)
4. I've had a cold for 5 days --> Present Perfect (have+pp)

Present Perfect Continuous (have+been+ing)
Past Perfect Continuous (had+been+ing)

Tenses and Sentences

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:26:44 GMT

Tenses and Sentences

Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

I have to decide whether each of these sentences are one of the following:

Future Form
Simple Present
Past Perfect
Past Continuous
Simple Past
Present Perfect
Present Continuous

Here are the sentences and my attempts:

John is working hard Ã Simple Present

I saw him last week Ã Simple Past

I was having a bath when the phone rang Ã Past Continuous

Isabel had finished her lunch when I arrived Ã Present Perfect

Nigel lives in London Ã Present Continuous

Iâve had a cold for 5 days Ã Past Perfect

They discussed the problem for three hours Ã Simple Past

Iâll give him the message when I see him Ã Future form.

Iâm going to teach in Mongolia next year Ã Future form.

When I did this on a computer application, it said I got 4/9â¦I changed probably 1 since then and they are my answers, although I canât find out why they are wrong either, can anyone enlighten this situation. Much appreciated. Thanks.

Re: New english test.

Philip — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:31:05 GMT

I understand your reasoning for the answer in #3; I think that the use of the past perfect indicates that I no longer hear about her, now that I've met her.

However, if I'm still hearing about her, I think the present perfect [I've heard], or even the present continuous perfect [I've been hearing] would be correct.

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: The Continuous tense

Anonymous — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:25:12 GMT

Ah ok, so is that entire sentence classed as Present Perfect Continuous, or are the clauses treated separately? I.e.If I understand you correctly, "Have you ever had" is present perfect, and "are being followed" is present continuous. I don't understand the 'passive' thing so I suppose I'm a bit unclear still. My understanding is that for it to be 'perfect' the word 'have' (or a form of have) needs to be in there, wihch it is, but at the other end of the sentence to "are being followed".

Does my jibber jabber make any sense at all?

Re: The Continuous tense

Tanit — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 15:52:57 GMT

Anonymous
Is it a rule that the auxiliary, the past participle and the main verb are immediately after one another with no other words inbetween?

No, such a rule does not exist.

Anonymous
For example: "Have you ever had the feeling that you're being followed?"
This sentence has both "have" and "had" and two continuous verbs in it ("feeling" and "being"), but is it neither Present Perfect Continuous nor Past Perfect Continuous?

Your sentence is in the present perfect. "Have you ever had ..."
"the feeling" is a gerund, and acts as if it were a noun (it's the direct complement of "have had"). Try and replace it with "idea", "impression" etc (I'm not saying they are perfect synonym for "feeling" -- it's just to demonstrate that you can have a noun there, and to show you that "feeling" is not acting as a verb in your sentence). Another clue to understand its function is that it's preceded by the article "the".
"that you're being followed" this is a "that-clause" which describes what sort of "feeling" we are talking about. "being" here has to be seen together with "are" and "followed": "are being followed" is present continuous, passive.

Re: Present/Present Continuous?

CalifJim — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 04:02:11 GMT

The present continuous seems better to me. Nevertheless, I would have said, "She has been losing her temper a lot lately" (present perfect continuous).

chossing correct tense/tense consistency

MaxMaximus — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:08:59 GMT

Greetings,

I have a pretty big favour to ask.

I've been struggling with this topic for quite awhile now.It goes without saying that my English "leaves something to be desired".

Having in mind the subtle differences that occur from using particular tenses, I have often wondered how the authors of following exercises expect anyone to choose the correct form, without providing sound and unambiguous references.

I've uploaded 2 exercises that I stumbled upon :

1. http://rapidshare.com/files/138835945/HP.txt.html
and
2.http://rapidshare.com/files/138835946/redundancy.txt.html

I have converted them into .txt files to ease moderators' job.

They present the essence of my inability to comprehend and do right.

First text:
1. First sentence, adverb "always" stands before the verb (author did not bother to put it in the brackets (always/be)). If she is dead (we don't know that until we have finished reading) or if she is not "a fighter" anymore (we are clueless about that either), - we could use Past Simple. Of course, Present Perfect is more likely choice, but the position of adverb puzzles.

2."But, prior to..." - Past Continuous or Past Perfect?

3.The sentence : "it (be)__ slow to notice..".I'm not sure whether Past Simple or Past Perfect should be used here.There is no strong reference whether this "slow noticing" occurred prior to her arrival or about the time when she came on board.

4."Those three years are not over..". The starting point is present time, but, that has nothing to do with the moment when she realized how things stand, which I know nothing about.Even the Present Simple is possible if she keeps realizing everyday that things are harder than she expected.For the rest of the paragraph I'm not certain whether Present Perfect should be used.

5."Above all,.." - from Present Simple (finds, is trying, is going to embark)...to Present Perfect (has found, has tried/has been trying, has embarked)...The tenses chosen in these sentences determine the tenses of the last paragraph in the text.

Second text:
1. First sentence: we could use Future Simple as well as Present Simple for the verb "have to"?

2. "Although no business or industry..". If there was a recent survey - do interviewed subjects still claim what they have said - or the use of Past Tense is obligatory? The word "any" is used in interrogative or negative sentences - but here, no question is being asked nor it is possible to be negative. Instead, "some" should have been used, I think.

3. "Those who have..." - Present Continuous or Present Simple? Former is more likely choice although the latter is possible also.

4. "In the past.." - as far as I know this presents the "indefinite moment in time". The Present Perfect could be used - but the position of adverb "always" confuses, again.

I would be more than grateful to anyone who can shed some light on these issues.
If I could reach to any other decent credible source I wouldn't ask for help in this way.

Thanks in advance,
Georgie.

Re: Present Perfect (americans)

Yankee — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:50:07 GMT

YSchneider
One example give really confuses me a lot, that's the I('ve) attached a picture(to an e-mail) thing. I've seen this so often in e-mails from american companys and it was always writen with I have attached, but in my present perfect concept I'd rather choose I attached.

Hi YSchneider

Yes, that's one of the sentences I might disagree with CalifJim about. If I were typing out an e-mail and wanted to tell the person that I was sending an attachment with it, I doubt that I would use the simple past tense. I'd probably use either the present perfect OR the present continuous. I'd say the reason for that is probably the extremely close connection with my present activity (typing out the e-mail).

I'd also say there is an element of truth to the fact that the present perfect sometimes sounds more formal -- but only an element of truth. I would not be willing to say that is always the case.