English grammar 10

*dos [duːz]) say [seɪ] ~ says [sɛz] (and not the expected 3rd sg. [seɪz]) The copula paradigm also has suffixation and vowel ablaut, but it is additionally marked by suppletion.[23] (See the table above for its eight inflected forms.) [edit] Defective verbs A final thing to mention is that a few verbs are defective in that they are not inflected or are missing some inflectional forms. The verb beware has only the base form beware. It is usually found in imperative sentences: Beware of the dog. The forms bewaring, bewares, bewared are not present in Modern English. The verb used only occurs in past form, as in We used to go to the beach every day when I was young. or in the base form only following do, as in We didn't use to go the beach every day. This used verb indicates habitual action or states in the past and should not be confused with the other verb use which is a regular verb. The verb stride is missing a past participle form in its inflectional paradigm for many speakers (for some speakers who do have a past participle form, the form may variously be stridden, strid, or strode). The verbs rumored and reputed only occur in the -en form in passive sentences: Halil is rumored to have participated in the scandal. Halil is reputed to have connections with the scandal. All modals (can, could, should, might, etc.) are defective. [edit] Auxiliary inflection Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2008) Of the auxiliaries, only be, have, and do are inflected for tense, number, and person. The auxiliary be has the same eight inflectional forms as a main verb (the copula) and have and do likewise have the same five inflectional forms as when functioning as main verbs. In contrast, modals are uninflected auxiliaries with respect to these grammatical parameters (and are thus defective). However, most auxiliaries share the additional inflection of negation. Negative inflection consists of a -n't suffix that is attached to the auxiliary. Thus, there are the following inflected auxiliary forms: be[24] aren't   (are + -n't) isn't   (is + -n't) weren't   (were + -n't) wasn't   (was + -n't) ain't   [dialectal, prescriptively "incorrect"] have haven't   (have + -n't) hasn't   (has + -n't) hadn't   (had + -n't) do don't   (do + -n't) doesn't   (does + -n't) didn't   (did + -n't) modalscan't   (can + -n't)couldn't   (could + -n't)mayn't   (may + -n't)   [very rare]mightn't   (might + -n't)mustn't   (must + -n't)shan't   (shall + -n't)won't   (will + -n't)wouldn't   (would + -n't) marginal auxiliariesdaren't   (dare + -n't)   [rare, mostly British]needn't   (need + -n't)   [rare, mostly British]oughtn't   (ought + -n't)   [ungrammatical in some varieties]usedn't   (used + -n't)   [ungrammatical in some dialects, mostly British] The negative forms don't [doʊnt] (and not the expected [dunt]) and won't [woʊnt] (and not the expected [wɪlnt]) are irregular in their changes in internal vowel, and shan't [ʃænt, ʃɑːnt] is irregular in its deletion of the final consonant (and in RP its vowel has shifted from [æ] to [ɑː]). The forms mayn't and shan't are now rare (particularly so with mayn't) and are virtually absent in standard varieties of American English. Traditional grammar views -n't not as an inflectional suffix but as simply a phonologically reduced form (in traditional terms contracted) of the grammatical word not. According to this view, haven't is equivalent to non-contracted have + not, doesn't = does + not, etc. These contracted negative forms are, thus, equated with the reduced (contracted) forms of some of the other auxiliaries, namely are > ’re, is > ’s, am > ’m, have > ’ve, has > ’s, had > ’d, does > ’s, will > ’ll, would > ’d. Although this is the historical origin of the negative forms, clearly in the modern language the -n't in these words are suffixes forming a single indivisible word as the negative auxiliaries display different syntactic behavior compared with constructions consisting of auxiliary + not: Didn't Halil bring the coffee? *Did not Halil bring the coffee? *Did Haliln't bring the coffee? Did Halil not bring the coffee? Sadaf brought the coffee, didn't she? *Sadaf brought the coffee, did not she? *Sadaf brought the coffee, did shen't? Sadaf brought the coffee, did she not? Additionally, it can also be shown that the reduced forms of the other auxiliaries do not behave similarly to the negative auxiliaries: Shouldn’t Halil go to the store?   (cf. Halil shouldn’t go to the store.) *Should’ve Halil gone to the store?   (cf. Halil should’ve gone to the store.) *He’dn’t go to the store if she asked him. He’d’ve gone to the store if she had asked him.[25] Finally, the negative inflection property applies generally to auxiliaries but not to main verbs. There are two exceptions to this, however, involving the "primary" verbs. The verb be as a main verb may also be inflected in the negative as the following examples show: The student wasn't being considered fairly.   (negative inflection as auxiliary) The student wasn't a sophomore.   (negative inflection as main verb) In British varieties, have may also have negative forms as a main verb while are ungrammatical for most American varieties: The student hasn't been treated fairly.   (negative inflection as auxiliary) The student hasn't enough time.   (negative inflection as main verb — British) The other "primary" verb, however, cannot have negative forms when acting as a main verb. This case of properties of auxiliaries applying to be and have is also seen in other syntactic behavior, such as in the inversion of subject and auxiliary operator. (See the operator section.) Thus, ’ve, ’m, ’s, etc. are phonologically reduced (i.e. contracted) forms of separate words whereas the negative -n’t is not a contracted separate word but rather a (inflectional) suffix.[26] [edit] Agreement Most English verbs mark number (in agreement with their subjects) only in the non-past tense, indicative mood. In this context, there is a contrast between the 3rd person and all other persons (i.e., 1st and 2nd): the 3rd person is marked with a -(e)s suffix while all other persons are unmarked (i.e. without overt marking). Furthermore, the inflectional suffix -(e)s also indicates singular number, i.e. -(e)s indicates a 3rd person singular subject. Similarly, singular number is only indicated in the 3rd person — number in the other persons are unmarked. The plural in the 3rd person is unmarked. The 3rd person singular suffix is added to the general present tense form while the unmarked form is general present tense form. There is, thus, only a distinction between a general present form and 3rd person singular form. General 3rd Singular listen listen-s push push-es Combined with personal pronoun subjects, the following are the possible subject-verb combinations:[27] General 3rd Singular I/we/you/they push he/she/it pushes The copula be, however, makes additional distinctions of the 1st person singular in the non-past and the 1st or 3rd person singular in the past. Unlike other verbs, these inflected forms of be lie in a suppletive relationship. Non-past Past General 1st Singular 3rd Singular General 1st/3rd Singular are am is were was Pronoun subject-verb combinations: Non-past Past General 1st Singular 3rd Singular General 1st/3rd Singular we/you/they are I am he/she/it is we/you/they were I/he/she/it was In the subjunctive mood, all person and number distinctions are neutralized (see below). [edit] Structure of the verb "complex" Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2008) [edit] Operator Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2008) The first auxiliary in the verb complex is termed the operator. It is displays a number of distinct syntactic and morphological characteristics. subject-operator inversion [ The large man with a cane ] has been coming your way. Has [ the large man with a cane ] been coming your way? [ The woman ] has been flying a kite, and [ her son ] has been flying a kite, too. [ The woman ] has been flying a kite, and so has [ her son ] .   (with coordination ellipsis) [edit] Time, tense and aspect This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject.Please help recruit one or improve this article yourself. See the talk page for details.Please consider using {{Expert-subject}} to associate this request with a WikiProject Main article: English_verb#Tenses Changes in tense in English are achieved by the changes in ending and the use of auxiliary verbs "to be" and "to have" and the use of the auxiliaries "will", "shall" and "would". (These auxiliaries cannot co-occur with other modals like can, may, and must.) The examples below use the regular verb to listen: Present tenses Simple present (or simply "present"): "I listen." This tense typically expresses habitual actions. Rarely, it is used to refer to present time in reportative style speech. Present continuous (or "present progressive"): "I am listening." This tense expresses actions in the present taking place as the speaker is speaking or in the future. Present perfect: "I have listened." This tense expresses actions that began in the past but are still true in the present: "I have known her for six years" (and I still know her). This is also used to express a completed action that took place at a non-specific moment in the past. This tense often expresses actions that happen in the past, yet cannot be considered a past tense because it always has a connection to the present. Present perfect continuous: "I have been listening." This is used to express that an event started at some time in the past and continuing to the present. All forms of the present tense are often used in place of their future-tense counterparts. In particular, various kinds of subordinate clauses — especially if and when clauses — cannot generally use the future tense, so the present tense is used instead. Past tenses Simple past: "I listened." This is used to express a completed action that took place at a specific moment in the past. (Confusingly, in US English, the simple past may sometimes be used for a non-specific moment in the past). Past continuous (otherwise known as the imperfect or past progressive): "I was listening." This is used to express an incomplete action in the past. (Thus, an "imperfect" action, as opposed to a completed and therefore "perfect" action.) Past perfect or pluperfect: "I had listened." This expresses an action completed before some other action in the past (often expressed by the simple past). The pluperfect is thus expressing an action even more in the past e.g. "He realised he had lost his way", "I was going to town because he had spoken to me". Past perfect continuous or simply "perfect continuous": "I had been listening." Usually used with an explicit duration, this indicates that an event was ongoing for a specific time, e.g. "When Peter entered my room, I had been listening to music for half an hour." Future tenses Simple future: "I shall/will listen." This is used to express that an event will occur in the future, or that the speaker intends to perform some action. Future continuous: "I shall/will be listening." This is used to express an ongoing event that has not yet been initiated. Future perfect: "I shall/will have listened." This indicates an action which will occur before some other action in the future: Normally two actions are expressed, and the future perfect indicates an action which will occur in the future but will, at the time of the main future action expressed, be in the past (e.g. "I will know the tune next week because I will have listened to it"). Future perfect continuous or future imperfect: "I shall/will have been listening." Expresses an ongoing action that occurs in the future, before some other event expressed in the future. "I am going to listen" is a construction using "to go" as an auxiliary. It is referred to as going to future, futur proche or immediate future, and has the same sense as the simple future, sometimes with an implication of immediacy. It is not strictly a tense, and "to go" is not strictly a tense auxiliary verb, but this construction often is presented as a tense for simplicity. By varying the tense of the auxiliary "to go", various other meanings can be achieved, e.g. "I am going to be listening" (future continuous), and "I was going to listen" (conditional perfect continuous). Conditional tenses Present conditional or simply conditional: "I would listen." This is used to express an event that occurred multiple times or was ongoing in the past (i.e. When I was younger, I would listen. [multiple times]), or something that would be done now or in the future when predicated upon another condition (i.e. “If I had the time, I would listen to you.” [This condition could be known from context and omitted from the conditional statement.]) Present continuous conditional: "I would be listening." This is used to express an ongoing event that had not yet been initiated. Conditional perfect: "I would have listened." Indicates that an action would occur after some other event. Conditional perfect continuous: "I would have been listening": Expresses an ongoing action that would occur in the future in the past, after some other event. Auxiliary verbs may be used to define tense, aspect, or mood of a verb phrase. As mentioned above "going to" is used for some future pseudo-tenses: Forms of "do" are used for some negatives, questions and emphasis of the simple present and simple past: "Do I listen?" "I do not listen." "I do listen!" "Did I listen?" "I did not listen." "I did listen!" [edit] Verb tense chart Main article: Grammatical aspect English verb tenses can be better visualized in the following chart, which shows the times of the English language and its three aspects, namely Prior, Complete, and Incomplete. Note that this chart only represents actions truly happening, be it present, past, or future. Since unreal conditionals are obviously assumptions, conditional structures with 'would' are not included here. PAST PRESENT FUTURE PRIOR ASPECT Past Perfect Present Perfect Future Perfect COMPLETE ASPECT Simple Past Simple Present Simple Future INCOMPLETE ASPECT Past Continuous Present Continuous Future Continuous [edit] Voice Main article: English passive voice English has two voices for verbs: the active and the passive. The basic form is the active verb, and follows the SVO pattern discussed above. The passive voice is derived from the active by using the auxiliary verb "to be" and the -en form of the main verb. Examples of the passive: Passive voice Active voice I am seen by John John sees me You will be struck by John John will strike you It was stolen by John John stole it We were carried by John John carried us They have been chosen by John John has chosen them Furthermore, the agent and patient switch grammatical roles between active and passive voices so that in passive the patient is the subject, and the agent is noted in an optional prepositional phrase using by, for example: active: I heard the music. passive: The music was heard (by me). (Note: me, not I) The passive form of the verb is formed by replacing the verb with to be in the same tense and aspect, and appending the -en form of the original verb. Thus: Tense Active voice The same sense, expressed with the passive voice Simple present I hear the music. The music is heard by me. Present progressive I am hearing the music. The music is being heard by me. Past progressive I was hearing the music. The music was being heard by me. Past perfect I had heard the music. The music had been heard by me. Simple future I will hear the music. The music will be heard by me. This pattern continues through all the composite tenses as well. The semantic effect of the change from active to passive is the depersonalisation of an action. It is also occasionally used to topicalize the direct object of a sentence, or when the agent is either unknown or unimportant even when included, thus: The plane was shot down. Dozens were killed. Bill was run over by a bus. Many writing style guides including Strunk and White recommend minimizing use of the passive voice in English; however, many others do not. There is a third 'voice' in English, related to the classic "middle" voice. In this, the patient becomes the subject, as in passive, but the verb remains in apparently active voice, no agent can plausibly be supplied, and generally, an adverbial modifies the entire construction. Thus: She does not frighten easily. This bread slices poorly. His novels sell well. [edit] Modals and modality English has "moods" of verb. These always include the declarative/indicative and the subjunctive moods, and normally the imperative is included as a mood. Some people include conditional or interrogative forms as verbal moods. [edit] Indicative, or declarative, mood The declarative mood or indicative mood is the simplest and most basic mood. The overwhelming majority of verb use is in the indicative, which may be considered the "normal" form of verbs, with the subjunctive as an "exceptional" form of verbs. (If any other forms are considered a mood (e.g. imperative), they may also be considered other "exceptional" verb forms.) Examples are most commonly used verb forms, e.g.: I think I thought He was seen I am walking home. They are singing. He is not a dancer. We are very happy. [edit] Subjunctive mood The subjunctive mood is used to express counterfactual (or conditional) statements, and is often found in if-then statements, and certain formulaic expressions. It is typically marked in the present tense by the auxiliary "were" plus the -ing form of the verb. Were I eating, I would sit. If they were eating, they would sit. Truth be told... If I were you... I would do that. The conjugation of these moods becomes a significantly more complex matter when they are used with different tenses. However, casual spoken English rarely uses the subjunctive, and generally restricts the conditional mood to the simple present and simple past. A notable exception to this is the use of the present subjunctive in clauses of wish or command which is marked in one or two ways: (1) if third person singular, the "-s" conjugation called for by the declarative mood is absent, and (2) past tense is not used. For example, "They insisted that he go to chapel every morning" means that they were requiring or demanding him to go to chapel. However, "They insisted that he went to chapel every morning" means they are reasserting the statement that, in the past, he did attend chapel every morning. The underlying grammar of this distinction has been called the "American subjunctive". On the other hand, other constructions for expressing wishes and commands, which do not use the subjunctive, are equally common, such as "They required him to go..." [edit] Imperative mood The imperative mood is used for commands or instructions. It is not always considered a verbal mood per se. Using the verb in its simplest, unconjugated form forms it: "Listen! Sit! Eat!" The imperative mood in English occurs only in the second person, and the subject ("you") is generally not expressly stated, because it is implied. When the speaker gives a command regarding anyone else, it is still directed at the second person as though it were a request for permission, although it may be a rhetorical statement. Let me do the talking. Come here. Give him an allowance. Let sleeping dogs lie. [edit] Modal forms Main article: English modal auxiliary verb Conditional forms of verb are used to express if-then statements, or in response to counterfactual propositions (see subjunctive mood, above), denoting or implying an indeterminate future action. Conditionals may be considered tense forms but are sometimes considered a verbal mood, the conditional mood. Conditionals are expressed through the use of the verbal auxiliaries could, would, should, may and might in combination with the stem form of the verb. He could go to the store. You should be more careful. I may try something else. He might be heading north. Note that for many speakers "may" and "might" have merged into a single meaning (that of "might") that implies the outcome of the statement is contingent. The implication of permission in "may" seems to remain only in certain uses with the second person, e.g. "You may leave the dinner table." Two main conditional tenses can be identified in English: I would think = Present Conditional I would have thought = Conditional Perfect [edit] Notes In English, a long-standing prescriptive rule holds that shall denotes simple futurity in the first person, and will denotes simple futurity in the second and third persons. In American English, this distinction has largely vanished; will is normally used for both cases, and shall is rare. In British English, adherence to the rule has declined during the 20th century (see Shall and will for a more detailed discussion), although use of shall remains for expressing the simple future in the first person. The distinction between tense, aspect, and mood is not clear-cut or universally agreed-upon. For example, many analysts would not accept that English has twelve tenses. The six "continuous" (also called "progressive") forms in the list above are often treated under the heading of "aspect" rather than tense: the simple past and the past continuous are examples of the same tense, under this view. In addition, many modern grammars of English agree that English does not have a future tense (or a future perfect). These include two large recent grammars: Biber, D., S. Johansson, G. Leech, S. Conrad & E. Finegan. 1999. Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Harlow, Longman. Huddleston, R. & G. Pullum. 2002. The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge, CUP. The main argument given by Huddleston and Pullum (pp 209-10) that English does not have a future tense is that "will" is a modal verb, both in its grammar and in its meaning. Biber et al. go further and say that English has only two tenses, past and present: they treat the perfect forms with "have" under "aspect". Huddleston & Pullum, on the other hand, regard the forms with "have" as "secondary tenses". [edit] Verb phrases Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2008) [edit] Adjectives Adjectives are words that can be used attributively within noun phrases where they (pre-)modify noun heads and predicatively within verb phrase where they are the complement of copular verbs. For example, in the sentence below the adjective tall occurs within the noun phrase the tall man modifying the noun head man. The adjective nice occurs within the verb phrase is nice as the complement of the (copular) verb head is. [ The tall man ] [ is nice ] The adjectives also act as the head of adjective phrases as in the following: The [ very tall ] man is [ rather nice ] Here the adjectives tall and nice are the heads of the adjective phrases very tall and rather nice. Semantically, adjectives provide more information about them. Adjectives are used to describe and identify their associated nouns. A further morphological characteristic of adjectives, which is also shared with adverbs, is their ability to be inflected in comparison: tall-er, tall-est. See also the comparison section. Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2008) [edit] Adjective phrases Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2008) [edit] Semantic ordering Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2008) [edit] Adverbs Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2008) The term adverb originating from traditional grammar refers to a wide range of words that have different functions and different syntactic behaviors. Therefore, it is best to separate adverbs into different subclasses and discuss the grammar of each subclass separately. See also the comparison section. [edit] Degree