By Present tenses, helping verbs

#1 John who took my pen is here. #2 John who is wearing my jacket is here. How firm a grasp would you like to obtain? (I know I shouldn't have written that, but I couldn't resist.) The thing that works for me is to take out the the subject and the "verb" and see if it still...

Lyangsuan wrote:When do we use "had" instead of "have"?Is the verb behind "had" a past tense or present tense?Example. Teenager who had finished their secondary education.Teenager who have finished their secondary education.Teenager who had finish their secondary education.Which one is correct?...

Bamtori wrote:Thanks for your reply, Marius. With "last night" it is definately "had". Then how about leave out "last night" in the sentence. Which should I use, "we (have/had) some guys come in here and ransack the place."?When will this ransacking take place? Will it be in the future? From...

I must have been sleeptyping too, in my earlier comment about the lack of a past tense form with "must", since "must" is already a past tense form (of the obsolete "mote"). It's interesting that "I have got to" and "I must" both use past tense forms for a present tense meaning. At first, I...

Pemmican wrote:As far as I know, there are these 13 tenses: a) Past Perfect Progressive ........................had been + present participle b) Past Perfect ..........................................had + past participle c) Past Progressive ...................................was/were + present...

Hello Xavier, you're right of course: Communication is one of the tasks of language. The Grammar is "late": Language follows special patterns (word order, inflection, cases, conjugation, etc) - language has to follow those patterns as without them, communication wouldn't be possible. The only...

I don't really understand the question either... Konstantin, you're referring to the Conditional with your German example. Indirect speech in German works differently as the Conjunctive has to be used in formal German, which however, can be replaced by the Conditional (would+infinitive). In...

"MUST" btw is the best example of a verb that only has finite forms. Present tense: I must, you must, he must, we must, you must, they must. Because of the fact that 'must' doesn't have a special form for the 3rd person singular (he must intead of he musts), it is an "anomolous finite". It is...

As far as I know, there are these 13 tenses: a) Past Perfect Progressive ........................had been + present participle b) Past Perfect ..........................................had + past participle c) Past Progressive ...................................was/were + present participle d)...