Search results for 'tag:Present progressive tag:Past perfect' matching tags 'Present progressive' and 'Past perfect'

Durational aspect of progressive tenses

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:05:30 GMT

Hi,
I was told that a present or past progressive tense like "is sleeping" or "was sleeping" denotes a temporary action or activity and the present perfect or past perfect progressive is used to indicate duration.

I don't understand why a present progressive is one that denotes a temporary action and I don't particularily see clearly why a present perfect tense is the one that emphasizes (denotes strongly?) the element duration and a present progressive tense is not, if I interpreted what was told correctly.

Both of the two pairs in mixed tenses below seem to denote duration, not temporary actions per se.
eg,

John was sleeping when I walked in.
John had been sleeping when I walked in.

John is sleeping now.
John has been sleeping since morning.

Simple past or past simple

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:55:32 GMT

Hi everybody,

Why do all the Grammar books use the expressions "simple present" and "simple past", although all the other tenses start with the tense-marker and add the aspect-marker then: present progressive, present perfect, present perfect progressive, past progressive, past perfect, past perfect progressive.
Couldn't it be more logical to then say "present simple" and "past simple"?

Yours, D.S. Elfers

Simple past or past simple?

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:47:13 GMT

Hi everybody,

I'm a teacher of English at a German Grammar School and after 12 years of experience I'm still wondering about the following puzzle:
Why do all the Grammar books stick to the "confusing" expressions simple past and simple present, although it seems quite more logical to say past simple and present simple? I really prefer these expressions in my classes, because all the other tenses just start with the "tense marker" and go on with the "aspect marker": present progressive, present perfect, past progressive, past perfect.
Can I go on using my preferable expressions?

Yours, D.S. Elfers

Re: Names of different tenses

CalifJim — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:23:08 GMT

Here are some Present - Past pairs:

Simple present - Simple past [He takes. He took.]

Present progressive - Past progressive [He is taking. He was taking.]

Present perfect - Past perfect [He has taken. He had taken.]

Present perfect progressive - Past perfect progressive [He has been taking. He had been taking.]

(Simple) Future (of the Present) (will) - ( Simple) Future of the Past (would) [He will take. He would take.]

Future (of the Present) progressive - Future (of the Past) progressive [He will be taking. He would be taking.]

Future (of the Present) perfect - Future (of the Past) perfect [He will have taken. He would have taken.]

Future (of the Present) perfect progressive - Future (of the Past) perfect progressive [He will have been taking. He would have been taking.]

(Future of the Past -- (with would)-- is also called "Conditional".)

(Progressive is also called Continuous.)

Caution: Not all discussions of tense use the same names for the tenses.

Re: How to remember tenses?

Goodman — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:25:45 GMT

Huygen,

By reading your post, something tells me that your English level should be beyond the question you just asked, and able to categorize the tenses already.

There are 3 basic tenses: Simple past â present â future

There are past progressive- present progressive- future progressive.

Then there past perfect- present perfect âfuture perfect which is not commonly used.

I am curious, may be I am missing something. Why do you have to memorize the tenses?

We should be able use it according to the sense of time.

You are walking â you are doing something at this minute. So itâs present progressive

I walk 2 miles everyday after work. Simple present, used to reflect a routine.

They were watching TV when you called last night.- Simple past progressive.

The perfect tenses are more complex and you may have to do some reading and studying on your own.

Here is something which may be helpful: http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/presentperfect.html

Re: have -p.p.

Avangi — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:17:10 GMT

Teleostomi wrote:

"There was no cockroach to have made her ill."

At first I thought "to have made her ill" allows for only the interpretation of "past participle" but could it also be taken as "present participle"?

I'll probably regret having jumped in here, but I don't think it's a participle. If you said, "to make her ill," I'd guess you'd call it something like a present infinitive phrase modifying "cockroach." In that sense, I'd call your example a past perfect infinitive, if there is such a thing. I hope someone has a better name for it.

Present participle might be, "It wasn't the cockroach making her ill." But that would be the same as, "The cockroach was not making her ill," (or "No cockroach was making her ill.") In this case the present participle just happens to be the verb form used in constructing that tense, (past progressive??) as it would be in, "The cockroach is not making her ill" (present progressive??).

Of course "made" is the past participle of "make," but it's used as part of the formula for making various verb tenses. Saying, " 'to have made her ill' is a 'past participle' " is sort of meaningless to me. It uses the past participle - not the present participle.

Re: Frank Sinatra - My Way(present perfect vs. past perfect).

WesternAmerican — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 08:03:00 GMT

I'm starting to comprehend at long last, Mr. P.
The present progressive indicates an action that started in the past but has an effect on the future. Like:
I've left home. I did it in the past, but I still experience the effects from that action up to this day.

Amazing. This forum is just great. Thank you guys, and thank you too Marius for directing me to those links.

I got another question though:
I've told him many times, but he never listens. <---Present Perfect
I had told him many times, but he never listened. <---Past Perfect

Does it make sense? In the first sentnece, I told him something, but he never listens...that is in the present, he chooses to not accept what I tell him.
The latter sentnece, I told him a couple of times, but he never listened. What I tried to express here is that he chose another way and we parted ways; Or that he has simply died.

Re: Active and passive

Goodman — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 18:27:52 GMT

Rex wrote:

Un soldat amÃ©ricain a Ã©tÃ© tuÃ© en Iraq hier.

The above is a passive sentence in French.
I would translate the above into English as follows:
An American soldier was killed in Iraq yesterday
OR
Yesterday, an American soldier was killed in Iraq.

I don't think my English version is a passive sentence. If you wrote, a soldier had been killed, it would be incorrect. Because it borders the past perfect tense, as far as I am concerned. You write the past perfect tense to push one action before the other.

How do you translate the French sentence into English?

Hi Rex,

I donât see how your sentences are not written in passive voice. They are as passive as passive can get.

You wrote:

I would translate the above into English as follows:
An American soldier was killed in Iraq yesterday
OR
Yesterday, an American soldier was killed in Iraq.

I don't think my English version is a passive sentence. If you wrote, a soldier had been killed, it would be incorrect. Because it borders the past perfect tense, as far as I am concerned. You write the past perfect tense to push one action before the other.

What is correct or otherwise sometimes can not be based on a one-line context.

Whether it is past perfect passive, present perfect passive, past passive or present progressive passive, a passive voice can not be anything else.

A military Humvee carrying 4 soldiers had been blown up as the vehicle passed through ...

American soldiers have been blown up by RSB .

A soldier was shot by insurgent fire yesterday.

American soldiers are being been killed almost on a daily basis since the war began 4 years ago.

Some may argue that the above sentence should have been in present perfect tense which does look and sound almost logical because they see the word âsinceâ. In fact, âare being killedâ is more correct in my opinion because of the adverbial phrase âon a daily basisâ.

The important thing is, we have to evaluate the complete context, not partially, in order to determine the meaning.

Re: Are ''eaten'' and ''beaten'' being used as adjective in the...?

Yankee — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 18:04:47 GMT

Don't you understand what people are talking about when they refer to "verb tenses", Jackson? The -ing form of verbs are used in the progressive/continuous 'tenses':

- present progressive
- present perfect progressive
- past perfect progressive
- future progressive
etc.

"I have been sleeping."

"It (the sentence above -- which had been previously referred to) does NOT consist of (the following items, seen as a unit: ) [a subject, the verb 'have' and two adjectives]."

Instead, the sentence "I have been sleeping" consists of [subject + verb]. If you want to be more precise about the word "verb", you can say "the verb 'sleep' in the present perfect progressive". There are no adjectives in the sentence.

How many tenses are there in English language?

Jackson6612 — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 14:03:33 GMT

I was told that there are twelve tenses in English:

1: Simple Present Tense

2: Present Perfect Tense

3: Present Progressive Tense

4: Present Perfect Progressive Tense

5: Simple Past Tense

6: Past Perfect Tense

7: Past Progressive Tense

8: Past Perfect Progressive Tense

9: Simple Future Tense

10: Future Perfect Tense

11: Future Progressive Tense

12: Future Perfect Progressive Tense

But I read somewhere that total number of tenses in English is six or seven. Is this true?