Verb Usage
Mr. Brasher
22.1 Verb Tenses
• Tense- form of a verb that shows the time of
an action or a condition
Present
• She writes about the U.S. currency for a living.
Past
• She wrote an article about coin collecting last
year.
Future
• She will write a book about old coins next
year.
Present Perfect
• Consists of a past participial with “has” or
“have”
• Betty taught for ten years. (implication is she
has retired)
• Betty has taught for ten years. (implication is
that she is still teaching.
Past Perfect
• The past perfect tense designates action in the
past just as simple past does, but the action of
the past perfect is action completed in the
past before another action.
• John raised vegetables and later sold them.
(past)
• John sold vegetables that he had raised. (past
perfect)
Future Perfect
• The future perfect tense designates action
that will have been completed at a specified
time in the future.
• Saturday I will finish my housework. (simple
future)
• By Saturday noon, I will have finished my
housework. (future perfect)
Present Progressive
• She is writing a newsletter about rare coins
now.
Past Progressive
• She was writing her weekly column.
Future Progressive
• She will be writing a new book soon.
Present Perfect Progressive
• She has been writing for years.
Past Perfect Progressive
• She had been writing speeches when her first
book on coins was published.
Future Perfect Progressive
• By the end of the year, she will have been
writing about different forms of currency for a
decade.
Expressing Time through Verb Tenses
• Past- existing or happening in the past
– Example: James collected and sold Spanish
doubloons.
• Past Perfect- existing or happening before a
specific time in the past
– Example: James and collected stamps until then.
Expressing Time through Verb Tenses
• Present- existing or happening now
– Example: James now collects U.S. silver dollars.
• Present Perfect- existing or happening
sometime before now.
– Example: He has collected that particular coin for
several years.
Expressing Time through Verb Tenses
• Future- existing or happening in the future
– Example: He will collect coins for a long time.
• Future Perfect- existing or happening before a
specific time in the future
– Example: By the time he is sixty years old, he will
have collected coins for most of his life.
Four Principal Parts of Verbs
• Read Section of page 523 that deal with the
four participial parts (present, present
participial, past, past participial)
Regular and Irregular Verbs
• Read bottom of page 523; go through charts
up until 526
• Look at charts through page 526.
Conjugating the Tenses
• Conjugation- complete list of the singular and
plural forms of a verb in a particular tense.
• Notice on the conjugation of the progressive
form the verb ends in –ing
• Note about be: this verb is highly irregular.
Write down the conjugation of be in your
notes off the board.
• *Note*- basic forms is present, past, future,
present plural, past plural, and future plural.
Volunteers
• Need 5 volunteers to conjugate the basic
verbs that correspond with exercise 9 then
after that the progressive tenses in exercise
10.
22.2 Active and Passive Voice
• Voice- form of a verb that shows whether the
subject is performing the action. Two types:
active and passive
• Active- if its subject performs the action
• Passive- if its action is performed upon the
subject
• Any action verb, with or without a direct
object, can be in the active voice.
• Most action verbs can be used in the passive
voice. Passive verb is made up of a form of be
and the past participial of a transitive verb.
Using Voice Correctly
• No firm rules but suggestions follow.
– Use active voice whenever possible. Sentences
with active verbs are more direct and less wordy.
(Note- at times passive voice more appropriate
such as when action of performer not important
or easily identified)
– Use the passive voice to emphasize the receiver of
an action rather then the performer of the action.
In-class
• Page 537 exercise 26