Search results for 'tag:Present simple tag:Constructions' matching tags 'Present simple' and 'Constructions'

Re: if clause

Hoa Thai — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:31:03 GMT

Devrim55 wrote:
If we ...........ready for the YDS exam decently, we .........at least two and a half hours a day for reading questions.

a)were to get / should have spared

b)got / would have spared

c)are to get / had spared

d)have gotten / would spare

e)have to get / must have spared

thanks in advance...

Hi,

Here is a structure of conditional sentences: if condition statement, result statement.

From that structure, we have 4 basic conditional constructions:

Type zero - condition statement uses present simple, result statement uses present simple.

Type I â condition statement uses present simple, result statement uses shall / will / can/ may + base verb.

Type II â condition statement uses past simple, result statement uses should / would / could / might + base verb.

Type III â condition statement uses past perfect, result statement uses should / would / could / might + have + past participle.

None of the 5 choices matches with any pattern shown above.

Re: present simple after adjective

Yankee — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 02:13:58 GMT

Hi Musesun

"This forbidden to make money in the university" is not a correct sentence. The word "forbidden" is not a tense at all -- it is just the past participle (V3) of the verb 'forbid'. You can say "This is forbidden", but you cannot say "This forbidden".

Have you learned how to make passive sentences yet? That seems to be what is confusing you.
The following pairs of sentences have the same meanings. The second sentence in each pair is the passive form of the first sentence:

Cowboys ride horses. = simple present tense, active voice
Horses are ridden by cowboys. = simple present tense, passive voice

He wrote that book. = simple past tense, active voice
That book was written by him. = simple past tense, passive voice

In addition to what I've written above, the past participle can also be used as an adjective. For example:
That is a forbidden activity. = That activity is forbidden.

Sometimes it is difficult to decide whether a past participle has been used as an adjective or is part of a passive verb construction.

Re: Correct order in which to parse a verb?

Garnett — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 14:29:51 GMT

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 sitting)

Any I've missed? -- See VERB FORMS

Also can you hjelp me with Moods: Indicative, Subjunctive, Imperative. -- See VERB MOODS

In Latin you use the Jussive Subjuntive for sentences like "Let them eat cake", or "Let's go to the park". What is this construction in English? This is a causative imperative (I think).

Awesome. Thanks for those references.

Mister Micawber wrote:
"The bus stop was situated outside the airport - 3rd person singular, passive (or more probably active with the linking verb be and a predicate adjective), indicative." Are you parsing "be" here, then? -- Yes

Cool. That's what I thought.

Mister Micawber wrote:
Just because "situated" is being used as a participle adjective here, doesn't mean it can't be parsed like any other verb. It is a PPP isn't it - past passive participle? -- Not if it is an adjective.

I disagree.

In "the flying machine", "flying" can be parsed (at least partially) - Active present participle.

Participle Adjective: "A form of a verb that in some languages, such as English, can function independently as an adjective, as the past participle baked in We had some baked beans, and is used with an auxiliary verb to indicate tense, aspect, or voice, as the past participle baked in the passive sentence The beans were baked too long." ~ from Dictionary.com.

Is it a verb being used as an Adjective, or an out-and-out adjective? Frfom the definition above I would argue the former.

Mister Micawber wrote:
Don't confuse form and function. It is wisest to call it simply an -ed verb form

I think that's the crux.

Have you sen my thread here?

What are your thoughts?

I believe "stood" can replace "situated" in the sentence "I was situated at the bus stop".

"Situated" is defined in the dictionary as an adjective in its own right. "Stood" is not.

It appears then, to hinge on whether "situated" is a adjective "with the linking verb be and a predicate adjective" or whether it is a "participle adjective" that could be replaced by any other participle adjective like "stood"...

Re: Correct order in which to parse a verb?

Mister Micawber — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 14:12:20 GMT

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 sitting)

Any I've missed? -- See VERB FORMS

Also can you hjelp me with Moods: Indicative, Subjunctive, Imperative. -- See VERB MOODS

In Latin you use the Jussive Subjuntive for sentences like "Let them eat cake", or "Let's go to the park". What is this construction in English? This is a causative imperative (I think).

"The bus stop was situated outside the airport - 3rd person singular, passive (or more probably active with the linking verb be and a predicate adjective), indicative." Are you parsing "be" here, then? -- Yes

Just because "situated" is being used as a participle adjective here, doesn't mean it can't be parsed like any other verb. It is a PPP isn't it - past passive participle? -- Not if it is an adjective. Don't confuse form and function. It is wisest to call it simply an -ed verb form.

Re: had/would rather

Goodman — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 22:21:15 GMT

Emily__ wrote:

Hi, I found some recommended explanations, but IÂ´m still a bit confused:

1. IÂ´d rather you went.

2. YouÂ´d rather stay.

(I suppose "Â´d" could be either "had" or "would".)

Why there is past simple in 1 and present simple in 2?

Thank you.

Itâs pouring outside. Iâd rather be staying home than going out tonight. â the apostrophe âdâ to me is the contracted form of âwouldâ. âHadâ seems wrong to me.

1. IÂ´d rather you went. âThe construction seems wrong but the apostrophe âdâ is âwouldâ.

2. YouÂ´d (would) rather stay, I presume â ok

Re: Star Heritage:Translation, Part II

Ant_222 — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 13:40:11 GMT

Yeah, that was a bit more helpful. Thanks again, Goodman.

I understood my simple mistakes (was->were, vigors->vigor,...) after your first post. Now I have understood a few more ones.

Here are the problems that I still haven't resolved:

Sorry for maybe stupid questions, but even a correction given, I sometimes don't understand it and ask for an explanation.

«The swamp had been left behind. I was on a field overgrown with grass. Now I distinctly saw strange metal constructins (metal construction is a structures. Not sure what you tried to depict in the preceding sentense !) in the east.»

You wrote: «metal construction is a structures». I don't understand it. What's the problem with «metal constructions»? And which sentence did you refer to as the «preceding sentense»? «I was on...» or «Now I distinctly...»?

«In the north I was amazed to find an _uncomely_ (choice of word) path going across the swamp.»
Is one of the below alteratives appropriate: imperceptible, unremarkable, unnoticable? I wanted to say that the path was difficult to note (spot).

«I stood at the territory of an abandoned factory. Everything here had grown over with grass. (Everything here had been covered by the over-grown vegetation / grass)»

Ok, but maybe «was covered by overgrown vegetation»?
I think the Past Pefect and the definite article are not needed. Am I right?
And is «to be grown over with» incorrect? I am asking it becasue I derived this phrase from my dictionary.

«..._addle_ (not familiar with is word) wooden crates»
As an unexperienced non-native speaker, I have troubles with word choice. So, I commented in the previous post: «(I) Don't know a word to express what happens to wood with time, especially when it's in a humid environment.» Then I listed some words, one of which I thought to be suitable: decomposed, decayed, corrupt... Which adjective can be applied to wood?

«To the north of the factory were rocks, (and ) the swamps stretched (stretching) to the south.»
«... and the swamps stretching to the south» â is this what you propose? Maybe you didn't understand what I wanted to express here:
To the north of the factory were rocks. To the south of it were the swamps. In order to be not repetitive I said the second in this way: «The swamps strethed to [in] the south». Maybe replacing «to» to «in» will do?

«It seems (tense, seemed), that it was a weapon factory.»
Yes, I have read that in your previous post and wrote (in my previous post) why I used Present Simple here. It's not so easy to me to deal with tenses in a text adventure... Maybe I'll ask this in a seperate thread...

«I passed the factory by. It was (silently uncomfortable) _silent and comfortless_ here.»
Silently uncomforable? «Silent and comfortless» doesn't sound right to you? Why? Of course it can be a sort of the feeling of the language, so you may not know the answer...

Re: Star Heritage:Translation, Part II

Ant_222 — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 19:31:11 GMT

Thank you very much, Goodman.

Below I have tried to correct the errors you pointed out, but I didn't succeed. In many cases I don't know what's incorrect and how to correct it. So I need further help on part of my errors.

«At night I had to _orient_ by touch. Suddenly I fell into a deep pit full of smelly water. I couldn't get out of it...»

I didn't see nothing, so I had to orient by touch. Isn't «orient» equal to «orientate» in this context?

«Hardly had I _rised_ my _look_ to the sky, the winged demons pounced _on_ me.»

rise -> raise?
look -> eyes?
on -> at, upon?

«Somehow I managed to _beat_ off the birds»
Yeah, what's wrong with the «beat»?

«Now I distinctly saw strange metal _constructins_ (structures?) in the east»
«Constructions» doesn't equal «structures» in this context, do they?

«In the north I was amazed to find an uncomely ( choice of word) path...»
Hmm.
Uncomely -> imperceptible, unremarkable, unnoticable?

«I stood at the territory of an abandoned factory. _Everything here had grown over with grass._»
Is «Everything here was grown over with grass» ok, or is there another problem (not tense)?

«Part of the buildings was _runious_.»
runious -> runious?

«..._addle_ wooden crates...»
Don't know a word to express what happens to wood with time, especially when it's in a humid environment.
Probable choices are:
putrid, decomposed, decayed, corrupt... Which can be applied to wood?

«Passing by the factory I looked at the ruins one more time. It seems (tense), that it was a weapon factory.»

Well, these are actual thoughts of the main character, so I used present simple. As I wrote above, his actions are described in past tenses, whereas his thoughts in present ones, as if he were writing them in a diary after completion.

For example, in a diary we may find something like the following:
«Date: so and so. Today I went to Moscow and bought a scanner there. It's very good: a standard 18x24 mm frame from my FED-Micron it scans into an image »

Thus, past events are in are in past tenses, while actual (by the date) ones are in present teses... It's a text adventure, so writing everything in past tenses (as a usual narrative) won't do.

«It was silent and _comfortless_ here.»
No idea why «comfortless» is incorrect.

Once you

Klavier — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 23:34:14 GMT

Hello.
In this construction with once, can I use present simple or present perfect? Is there any difference?

Once you have bought the car, send me the invoice.
Once you buy the car, send me the invoice.