Search results for 'tag:Present tenses tag:Plurals' matching tags 'Present tenses' and 'Plurals'

Re: Simple Question

Avangi — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:38:15 GMT

Simple present tense, third person singular has an "s." Third person plural does not.

Many of the bad things which happen can be avoided. (Things is plural, so happen must be plural.)

A full moon, which happens every 28 days, usually causes high tides. (Moon is singular, so happens must be singular.)

I'm having a problem with "what." Maybe it's always singular, so we'd never say, "What happen."

- A.

Re: I need help with determining the parts of speech w/ this sentence!!!!

Avangi — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:18:15 GMT

Welcome to English Forums.

It's an imperative sentence, the subject being (you) understood.
"Give" is a verb, present tense, second person singular or plural, the simple predicate of the sentence.
"yearbook" is a noun, the direct object of the verb.
"whoever" is a pronoun, subject of the dependent clause, "whoever paid for one." The clause is object of the preposition "to."
"paid" = verb
"for" = preposition
"one" = pronoun, in this case.

While "whoever paid for one" is a clause, if you removed it from the sentence, I don't believe you'd be left with another separate clause. "Give a yearbook" could be considered to be a clause, but in this sentence, the prepositional phrase, "to whoever paid for one" is an integral part of the main clause.

Best wishes, - A.

Re: When -s forms should be used ?

phanish — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:28:18 GMT

Clive
Hi,
No. You need to understand how to make the simple present tense.
eg
First person singular       I cook
Second person singular   you cook
Third person singular        he/she/it cooks

First person plural           we cook
Second person plural      you cook
Third person plural          they cook

You make the simple present tense this way for all regular English verbs.
Have you learned this yet?

'Cook', 'deal' and 'rise' are all regular verbs.

Clive

Sir, I didn't know this before . It is quite clear to me now. I was about to give one more example.

"I love you" and "She loves me"

Now I am quite clear with this.

Thank You everyone. I am very grateful to you all.

Re: When -s forms should be used ?

AlpheccaStars — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:22:11 GMT

Panesh:

Sunrise (one word) is a noun.In your sentence, the word "rise" is a verb, not a noun. Every sentence must have a verb.

English used to be a highly inflected language. Over the centuries, the inflections have been changed or lost. The addition of -s in third person singular, present tense is one of the verb inflections that still remain in the language

Also the ending 's and s' is used to mean possessive case (nouns), and the ending -s (nouns) to mean plural.

Mary cooks dinner. (cook is the verb)

Mary Cook's dinner (Mary Cook is her name. It is her dinner. This is not a sentence, because there is no verb.)

Joe's Cars (a business name) gives good deals to the customers. (the verb is give, deal is a noun in the plural)

Joe deals in cars. This site deals with various topics. (deals is the verb, present tense, 3rd person singular)

Re: When -s forms should be used ?

Clive — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:12:16 GMT

Hi,
No. You need to understand how to make the simple present tense.
eg
First person singular       I cook
Second person singular   you cook
Third person singular        he/she/it cooks

First person plural           we cook
Second person plural      you cook
Third person plural          they cook

You make the simple present tense this way for all regular English verbs.
Have you learned this yet?

'Cook', 'deal' and 'rise' are all regular verbs.

Clive

Re: id/t/d

Philip — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:27:10 GMT

CB's explanation is 100% right on. It is a linguistic question dealing with phonology.

By the way, the same principle is in play with the plural noun ending 's/es': 's' after a non-voiced consonant (lamps, desks); 'z' after a voiced consonant or a vowel (dogs, monkeys); and 'iz' after the sound of 's' or 'z' (classes, noises).

The same with the third person singular of the present tense of verbs: 's' (hits); 'z' (plays); and 'iz' (misses).

(Printing note: in my examples, and in CB's, the vowel indicated as 'i' should be the schwa (Ó) sound.

Re: grammar question?

CalifJim — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:19:37 GMT

(1) In 1978, a year or so before The Wall was released, Gilmour filed his first solo project, appropriately titled David Gilmour. While the songs don't approach the sublime heights of his best 1970s work, the album does have enjoyable moments, like the rockin' "Cry from the Street" and the poignant "So Far Away,"one of his best vocal turns.

Should it be didn't? Please clarify. No. It should be don't. When speaking of the contents of an artistic work which is currently available to all for examination use the present tense. It doesn't matter when the work was first created.

The plot of the play, written in 1598, is complex.

The songs, released five years ago, are not very melodic.

(2) Twisted Sister join Metallica for their second European tour which started on June 6 and lasted until June 10th. It was soon after this tour that Metallica had their first meeting with future manager and future record label Chris Burnstein from Q Prime, this happened on August 1, 1984. Metallica let the old manager Jon Zazula go on the August 2.

Should it be "joined" or "joins"? Is go okay? Please check in the above sentence. Twisted Sister is a group, so the notional plural join is used. go is OK. The grammar of let is as follows:

let [object] [base form of verb] Let my people go. We let the boys play until 5:30. Don't let them see us.

(3) This is unfortunate, and almost guarantee that the disagreements and accusations will persist among Jimi and the various factions of the Hendrix family.

Should it guarantees? Yes. But maybe two or more things are mentioned in the preceding text which are being referenced here.

(4) Hendrix returned to New York City for more club gigs. In July he saw Fank Zappa, whose band the Mothers of Invention were playing at an adjacent club.

Should it be was? Again the notional plural is used.

(5) He did this by melting plastic bottles into a ball and then using a soldering iron to make holes for his fingers. He fit his fingers into the plastic was it was still pliable enough to be shaped.

Does the bold phrase make sense? Please rephrase for clarity of thought. Typo. It should be while it was still pliable.

(6) Not since Eddie Van Halen has a guitar player been as influential to the prevailing sound of rock music.

Should it be as? No. a guitar player has (not) been as influential is the normal order. The inversion is required after the initial negative not since....

Re: grammar question?

Avangi — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:49:30 GMT

(1) (Use simple present, "don't.") The album is eternal, so to speak, and critics may continue to make comments in the present, eg., the album does have enjoyable moments.

(2) Use "joined." All the other comments here are in simple past. "Go" doesn't really have a tense here. It's the bare infinitive. They let him [to] go. The sentence is in simple past because of "let."

People sometimes use present tense for a narrative like this but at this stage you should avoid mixing tenses unless you have a good reason to do so.

(3) Yes. It's simple present tense, 3rd person singular: "it guarantees."

(4) It's your choice. The band is singular but the members are plural. When you say "whose band" it leans a little toward singular, "whose band was playing."

(5) while it was still pliable enough to be shaped.

(6) Has is correct. (I would think "influential in the prevailing sound" or "influential in creating the prevailing sound" or "has a guitar player had so great an influence on the prevailing sound" - I don't know - I'm not happy with any of them. Maybe someone else will have an idea.)

Re: Is this sentence a future or present tense?

Philip — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:11:22 GMT

Let's see = 1st person plural suggestion; if he wins = present tense.
However, the future time is obviously implied.

Re: beat or beated or beats

Philip — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 14:09:41 GMT

Anonymous
Hi there, Do I put beat/beats/beated in the following sentence? Thank you

He almost beat me. Is it past tense or present tense?

In the case of the 3rd-person singular, there is no cause for ambiguity: beat ~ beats. In other cases, such as 3rd-person plural, there could be some ambiguity: they almost beat us yesterday, they almost beat us every time we play. Context would normally make it clear.